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Though not another man in the Highlands should draw a sword, 
I will die for you."— Page 15 



I The Story or 

uny 




O^LD 



•WMrs. McCann 
illustrated 



NEW YORK 
MeLOUGHLIN BROTHERS 






Tush^Y of CONGRESS? 

Ilwu 0'»ules Received 
SEP 12 i90r 
i ,„ Ceoynrtrt Bntry 



Lcuss n XXc 
l3f 7*1 



NOi 



COPY B. 



Copyright, 1907, 
By McLoughlin Brothers 
New York 




Boyhood of Prince Charles Edward Stuart 

II 

The Landing of Prince Charlie 

III 



The March South 

Edinburgh . 

Prestonpans 

The March to Derby 

The Retreat 



IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 



12 



20 



40 



63 



In the Highlands 74 



IX 



Culloden 



82 




' '/'I 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 



BOYHOOD OF PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD STUART 

IN 1734 the city of Gaeta, in the kingdom of 
Naples, was held by an Austrian force, and 
was besieged by a mixed army of French, Wal- 
loons, Spaniards, and Italians, commanded by 
the Duke of Liria. Don Carlos, a Spanish 
prince, was doing his best, by their aid, to con- 
quer the kingdom of Naples for himself. There 
is now no kingdom of Naples: there are no 
Austrian forces in Italy, and there is certainly, 
in all the armies of Europe, no such officer as 
was fighting under the Duke of Liria. This 
officer, in the uniform of a general of artillery, 
was a slim, fair-haired, blue-eyed boy of thirteen. 
He seemed to take a pleasure in the sound of 
the balls that rained about the trenches. When 
the Duke of Liria' s quarters had been destroyed 
by five cannon shots, this very young officer was 
seen to enter the house, and the duke entreated, 
but scarcely commanded, him to leave. The 
boy might be heard shouting to the men of his 
very mixed force in all their various languages. 
He was the darling of the camp, and the favor- 



6 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

ite of the men, for his courage and pleasant 
manners. 

This pretty boy with a taste for danger, 
Charles Edward Stuart, was called by his friends 
' the Prince of Wales. ' He was, indeed, the 
eldest son of James VIII. of Scotland and Third 
of England, known to his enemies as 'the 
Pretender.' James, again, was the son of James 
II., and was a mere baby when, in 1688, his 
father fled from England before the Prince of 
Orange. 

The child (the son of James II.) grew up in 
France : he charged the English armies in Flan- 
ders, and fought not without distinction. He 
invaded Scotland in 1715, where he. failed, and 
now, for many years, he had lived in Rome, a 
pensioner of the Pope. James was an unfor- 
tunate prince, but is so far to be praised that he 
would not change his creed to win a crown. He 
was a devout Catholic — his enemies said 'a 
bigoted Papist ' — he was the child of bad luck 
from his cradle ; he had borne many- disappoint- 
ments, and he was never the man to win back a 
kingdom by the sword. He had married a 
Polish princess, of the gallant House of Sobieski, 
and at Gaeta his eldest son, though only a boy, 
showed that he had the courage of the Sobieskis 
and the charm of the Stuarts. The spies of the 
English Government confessed that the boy was 
more dangerous than the man, Prince Charles 
than King James. 

While Charles, at Gaeta, was learning the art 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 7 

of war, and causing his cousin, the Duke of 
Liria, to pass some of the uneasiest moments of 
his life, at home in Rome his younger brother 
Henry, Duke of York, aged nine, was so indig- 
nant with his parents for not allowing him to go 
to the war with his brother, that he flung away 
his little sword in a temper. From their cradle 
these boys had thought and heard of little else 
but the past glories of their race; it was the 
dream of their lives to be restored to their own 
country. In all he did, the thought was always 
uppermost with Charles. On the way from Gaeta 
to Naples, leaning over the ship's side, the 
young Prince lost his hat ; immediately a boat 
was lowered in the hope of saving it, but Charles 
stopped the sailors, saying with a peculiar smile, 
' I shall be obliged before long to go and fetch 
myself a hat in England. ' 

Every thought, every study, every sport that 
occupied the next few years of Charles' life in 
Rome, had the same end, namely, preparing 
himself in every way for the task of regaining 
his kingdom. Long days of rowing on the 
lake of Albano, and boar-hunting at Cisterna, 
made him strong and active. He would often 
make marches in shoes without stockings, 
hardening his feet for the part he played after- 
wards on many a long tramp in the Highlands. 
Instead of enjoying the ordinary effeminate 
pleasures of the Roman nobility, he shot and 
hunted; and in the Borghese Gardens practised 
that royal game of golf, which his ancestors had 



8 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

played long before on the links at St. Andrews 
and the North Inch of Perth. His more serious 
studies were, perhaps, less ardently pursued. 
Though no prince ever used a sword more gal- 
lantly and to more purpose, it cannot be denied 
that he habitually spelled it ' sord, ' and though 
no son ever wrote more dutiful and affectionate 
letters to a father, he seldom got nearer the 
correct spelling of his parent's name than 'Gems. ' 
In lonely parts of Rome the handsome lad and 
his melancholy father might often have been 
seen talking eagerly and confidentially, plan- 
ning, and for ever planning, that long-talked-of 
descent upon their lost kingdom. 

If his thoughts turned constantly to Britain, 
many hearts in that country were thinking of 
him with anxious prayers and hopes. In Eng- 
land, in out-of-the-way manor-houses and parson- 
ages, old-fashioned, high-church squires and 
clergymen still secretly toasted the exiled family. 
But in the fifty years that had passed since the 
Revolution, men had got used to peace and the 
blessings of a settled government. Jacobitism 
in England was a sentiment, hereditary in certain 
Tory families; it was not a passion to stir the 
hearts of the people and engage them in civil 
strife. It was very different with the Scots. 
The Stuarts were, after all, their old race of 
kings ; once they were removed and unfortunate 
their tyranny was forgotten, and the old national 
feeling centered round them. The pride of the 
people had suffered at the Union (1707); the old 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 




In the Borghese Gardens practised that royal game of golf." — Page 7 



10 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

Scots nobility felt that they had lost in im- 
portance; the people resented the enforcement 
of new taxes. The Presbyterians of the trading- 
classes were Whigs; but the persecuted Episco- 
palians and Catholics, with the mob of Edin- 
burgh, were for 'the auld Stuarts back again.' 
This feeling against the present Government and 
attachment to the exiled family were especially 
strong among the tierce and faithful people of the 
Highlands. Among families of distinction, like 
the Camerons of Locheil, the Oliphants of Gask, 
and many others, Jacobitism formed part of the 
religion of gallant, simple-minded gentlemen 
and of high-spirited, devoted women. In many 
a sheiling and farmhouse old broadswords and 
muskets, well-hidden from the keen eye of the 
Government soldiers, were carefully cherished 
against the brave day when ' the king should 
have his own again. ' 

In 1774 that day seemed to have dawned to 
which Charles had all his life been looking for- 
ward. France, at war with England, was pre- 
paring an invasion of that country, and was glad 
enough to use the claims of the Stuarts for her 
own purposes. A fleet was already on ship- 
board, but the English admiral was alert. A 
storm worked havoc among the French ships, 
and it suited the French Government to give up 
the expedition. Desperate with disappointment, 
Charles proposed to his father's friend, the exiled 
Lord Marischall, to sail for Scotland by himself 
in a herring-boat, and was hurt and indignant 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE II 

when the old soldier refused to sanction such an 
audacious plan. 

Charles had seen enough of hanging about for- 
eign courts and depending on their wavering pol- 
icy; he was determined to strike a blow for him- 
self. I n Paris he was surrounded by restless spirits 
like his own; Scots and Irish officers in the 
French service, and heart-broken exiles like old 
Tullibardine, eager for any chance that would 
restore them to their own country. Even pru- 
dent men of business lent themselves to Charles's 
plans. His bankers in Paris advanced him 
180,000 livres for the purchase of arms, and of 
two Scottish merchants at Nantes, Walsh and 
Routledge, one undertook to convey him to 
Scotland in a brig of eighteen guns, the 
'Doutelle,' while the other chartered a French 
man-of-war, the ' Elizabeth, 9 to be the convoy, 
and to carry arms and ammunition. To provide 
these Charles had pawned his jewels, jewels 
which ' on this side I could only wear with a 
very sad heart,' he wrote to his father; for the 
same purpose he would gladly have pawned his 
shirt. On June 22 he started from the mouth 
of the Loire in all haste and secrecy, only writ- 
ing for his father's blessing and sanction when 
he knew it would be too late for any attempt to 
be made to stop him. The companions of his 
voyage were the old Marquis of Tullibardine, 
who had been deprived of his dukedom of Athol 
in the '15; the Prince's tutor and cousin, Sir 
Thomas Sheridan, a rather injudicious Irishman; 



12 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

two other Irishmen in the French and Spanish 
services; Kelly, a young English divine; and 
^Eneas Macdonald, a banker in Paris, and 
younger brother of the chieftain Macdonald of 
Kinlochmoidart, a prudent young man, who saw 
himself involved in the Prince's cause very much 
against his will and better judgment. 



II 

THE LANDING OF PRINCE CHARLIE 

England and France being at war at this time, 
the Channel was constantly swept by English 
men-of-war. The ' Doutelle ' and her convoy 
were hardly four days out before the ' Elizabeth' 
was attacked by an English frigate, the ' Lion. ' 
Knowing who it was he had on board, Walsh, 
the prudent master of the * Doutelle, ' would by 
no means consent to join in the fray, and sheered 
off to the north in spite of the commands and 
remonstrances of the Prince. The unfortunate 
* Elizabeth ' was so much disabled that she had 
to return to Brest, taking with her most of the 
arms and ammunition for the expedition. At 
night the * Doutelle ' sailed without a light and 
kept well out at sea, and so escaped further 
molestation. The first land they sighted was the 
south end of the Long Island. Gazing with 
eager eyes on the Promised Land, old Lord 
Tullibardine was the first to notice a large Hebri- 
dean eagle which flew above the ship as they 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 13 

approached. * Sir, ' he said, ' it is a good omen ; 
the king of birds has come to welcome your 
royal highness to Scotland.' 

Charles had need of all happy auguries, for on 
his arrival in Scotland things did not seem very 
hopeful. With his usual rash confidence he 
had very much exaggerated the eagerness of his 
friends and supporters to welcome him in what- 
ever guise he might come. Never had fallen 
kings more faithful and unselfish friends than 
had the exiled Stuarts in the Highland chiefs 
and Jacobite lairds of Scotland, but even they 
were hardly prepared to risk life and property 
with a certainty of failure and defeat. Let the 
Prince appear with 5,000 French soldiers and 
French money and arms, and they would gather 
round him with alacrity, but they were prudent 
men and knew too well the strength of the exist- 
ing Government to think that they could over- 
turn it unaided. 

The first man to tell the Prince this unwel- 
come truth was Macdonald of Boisdale, to whom 
he sent a message as soon as he landed in Uist. 
This Boisdale was brother of the old Clanranald, 
chief of the loyal clan Macdonald of Clanranald. 
If these, his stoutest friends, hesitated to join 
his expedition Charles should have felt that his 
cause was desperate indeed. But his mind was 
made up with all the daring of his five-and- 
twenty years, and all the ill-fated obstinacy of 
his race. For hours he argued with the old 
Highlander as the ship glided over the waters of 



14 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

the Minch. He enumerated the friends he eould 
count on, among them the two most powerful 
chiefs of the North, Macdonald of Sleat, and the 
Macleod. 'They have both declared for the 
existing Government,' was the sad reply. 
Before taking leave of the Prince, Bloisdale 
again urged his returning * home. ' ' I am come 
home, ' replied Charles passionately, ' and can 
entertain no notion of returning. I am persuaded 
that my faithful Highlanders will stand by me. ' 
On July 19 the * Doutelle ' cast anchor in 
Loch na-Nuagh, in the country of the loyal 
Macdonalds. The first thing Charles did was to 
send a letter to the young Clanranald to beg his 
immediate presence. The next day four of the 
chief men of the clan waited on Charles, Clanra- 
nald, Kinloch Moidart, Glenaladale, and another 
who has left us a lively picture of the meeting. 
For three hours, in a private interview, Clanranald 
tried in vain to dissuade the Prince. Then 
Charles — still preserving his incognito — appeared 
among the assembled gentleman on deck. k At 
his first appearance I found my heart swell to 
my very throat' writes the honest gentleman 
who narrates the story. His emotion was fully 
shared by a younger brother of Kinloch Moidart's 
who stood on deck silent from youth and 
modesty, but with his whole heart looking out 
of his eyes. His brother and the other chiefs 
walked up down the deck arguing and remon- 
strating with Charles, proving the hopelessness 
of the undertaking. As he listened to their talk 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 15 

the boy's color came and went, his hand invol- 
untarily tightened on his sword. Charles caught 
sight of the eager young face, and, turning 
suddenly towards him cried, ' Will yoti not 
assist me ? ' 'I will, I will ; though not another 
man in the Highlands should draw a sword, I 
will die for you.' Indeed, years after all had 
failed, young Clanranald prepared a new rising, 
and had 9,000 stand of arms concealed in the 
caves of Moidart. 

The boys words were like flint to tinder, lie- 
fore they left the ship the hesitating chieftains 
had pledged themselves to risk property, in- 
fluence, freedom, and life itself in the Prince's 
cause. These gallant Macdonalds were now 
willing to run all risks in receiving the Prince 
even before a single other clan had declared for 
him. Old Macdonald of Boisdale entertained 
Charles as an honored guest in his bare but hos- 
pitable Highland house. All the people of the 
district crowded to see him as he sat at dinner. 
The young Prince delighted all present by his 
geniality and the interest he showed in every- 
thing Highland, and when he insisted on learn- 
ing enough Gaelic to propose the king's health 
in their native language, the hearts of the simple 
and affectionate people were completely gained. 

Meanwhile young Clanranald had gone to 
Skye to try to persuade Macleod and Sir Alex- 
ander Macdonald to join the Prince. It was all 
in vain; these two powerful chiefs were too 
deeply committed to the Government. Next to 



16 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

these two, the most influential man in the High- 
lands was Cameron of Locheil. Indeed, such 
was the respect felt by all his neighbors for his 
gentle and chivalrous character, that there was 
no one whose example would carry such weight. 
It was all- important to gain him to the cause. - 
No one saw more clearly than Locheil the hope- 
lessness of the undertaking, no one was more 
unwilling to lead his clansmen to what he knew 
was certain destruction. He would see the 
Prince, he said, and warn him of the danger and 
entreat him to return. ' Write to him, ' urged 
Locheil's brother, ' but do not see him. I know 
you better than you know yourself. If this 
Prince once sets eyes on you he will make you 
do whatever he pleases. ' It was but too true a 
prophecy. When all argument had failed to 
move Locheil's prudent resolution, Charles ex- 
claimed passionately, ' In a few days, with a 
few friends, I will raise the Royal Standard and 
proclaim to the people of Britain that Charles 
Stuart is come over to claim the crown of his 
ancestors, to win it or perish in the attempt. 
Locheil, who, my father has often told me, was 
our firmest friend, may stay at home and learn 
from the newspapers the fate of his Prince. ' It 
was more than the proud, warm heart of the 
chief could stand. * No, ' he cried with emotion, 
* I will share the fate of my Prince, and so shall 
every man over whom nature and fortune has 
given me any power. ' 

Even before the Royal Standard was raised an 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 17 

unexpected success crowned the rebel arms. 
The Government hud troops stationed both at 
Fort Augustus and Fort William. The latter 
being in the heart of the disaffected district, the 
commanding officer at Fort Augustus despatched 
two companies of newly-raised men to its assis- 
tance. This body, under a Captain Scott, was 
approaching the narrow bridge winch crossed the 
Speail some seven miles from Fort William; all 
at once a body of Highlanders appeared, occupy- 
ing the bridge and barring further passage. Had 
the troops plucked up courage enough to advance 
they would have found only some dozen Mac- 
donalds; but the wild sound of the pipes, the 
yells of the Highlanders, and their constant 
movement which gave the effect of a Large body, 
struck terror into the hearts of the recruits: they 
wavered and fell back, and their officer, though 
himself a brave man, had to order a retreat. 
But the sound of firing had attracted other 
bodies of Macdonalds and Camerons in the 
neighborhood. All at once the steep, rough 
hillside seemed alive with armed Highlanders; 
from rock and bush they sprung up, startling the 
echoes by their wild shouts. In vain the dis- 
ordered troops hurried along tne road and rushed 
across the isthmus to the further side of the 
lakes; there a new party of Macdonalds, led by 
Keppoch, met them in front, and the whole 
body surrendered with hardly a blow struck. 
They were carried prisoners to Locheil's house, 
Achnacarry. In default of medical aid, the 



18 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 



wounded captain was sent to Fort William, in 
that spirit of generous courtesy which character- 
ized all Charles's behavior to his defeated 



enemies. 




'Go, sir, to your general; tell him what you have seen . . .' 

On August 19 the Royal Standard was raised 
at Glenfinnan, a deep rocky valley between Loch 
Eil and Loch Sheil, where the Prince's monu- 
ment now stands. Charles, with a small body of 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 19 

Macdonalds, was the first to arrive, early in the 
morning. He and his men rowed up the long 
narrow Loch Sheil. The valley was solitary — not 
a far-off bag- pipe broke the silence, not a figure 
appeared against the skyline of the hills. With 
sickening anxiety the small party waited, while 
the minutes dragged out their weary length. At 
last when suspense was strained to the utmost, 
about two in the afternoon, a sound of pipes was 
heard, and a body of Camerons under Locheil 
appeared over the hill, bringing with them the 
prisoners made at the Bridge of Spean. Others 
followed: Stewarts of Appin, Macdonalds of 
Glencoe and Keppoch, till at least 1,500 were 
present. Then the honored veteran of the party, 
old Tullibardine, advanced in solemn silence and 
unfurled the royal banner, with the motto 
Tandem Triumphans. As its folds of white, 
blue, and red silk blew out on the hill breeze, 
huzzas rent the air, and the sky was darkened 
by the bonnets that were flung up. An English 
officer, a prisoner taken at Spean, stood by, an 
unwilling spectator of the scene. ' Go, sir, ' 
cried the Prince in exultation, 'go to your 
general ; tell him what you have seen, and say 
that I am coming to give him a battle. ' 



20 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

III 

THE MARCH SOUTH 

For a full month Prince Charles had been in 
Scotland. During that time a body of men, 
amounting to a small army, had collected round 
him; his manifestoes had been scattered all over 
the country (some were even printed in Edin- 
burgh), and yet the Government had taken no 
steps to oppose him. News travelled slowly 
from the Highlands ; it was August 9 before any 
certain account of the Prince's landing was re- 
ceived in Edinburgh. One bad fruit of the Union 
was that Scotch questions had to be . settled in 
London, and London was three days further 
away. Moreover, at that greater distance, men 
had more difficulty in realizing the gravity of 
the situation. Conflicting rumors distracted the 
authorities in Edinburgh; now it was declared 
that the Prince had landed with 10,000 French 
soldiers, at another time men ridiculed the idea 
of his getting a single man to rise for him. 
Those who knew the country best took the 
matter most seriously. The question of defence 
was not an easy one. At that time almost all 
the available British troops were in Flanders, 
fighting the French ; the soldiers that were left 
in Scotland were either old veterans, fit only for 
garrison duty, newly raised companies whose 
mettle was untried, or local militias which were 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 21 

not to be trusted in all cases. If the great lords 
who had raised and who commanded them chose 
to declare for the Stuarts, they would carry their 
men with them. 

The commander-in-chief, Sir John Cope, was 
not the man to meet so sudden and so peculiar a 
crisis. He had nothing of a real general's love 
of responsibility and power of decision. To es- 
cape blame and to conduct a campaign according 
to the laws of war was all the old campaigner 
cared for. When it was decided that he was 
to march with all the available forces in Scotland 
into the Highlands he willingly obeyed, little 
guessing what a campaign in the Highlands 
meant. Almost at once it was found that -it 
it would be impossible to provide food for horses 
as well as men. So the dragoons under Colonel 
Gardiner were left at Stirling. We shall hear of 
them again. But his 1,500 infantry were 
weighted heavily enough ; a small herd of black 
cattle followed the army to provide them with 
food, and more than 100 horses carried bread and 
biscuit. Confident that the loyal clans would 
come in hundreds to join his standard, Cope car- 
ried 700 stand of arms. By the time he reached 
Crieff, however, not a single volunteer had come 
in, and the stand of arms was sent back. \ Cope 
followed one of the great military roads which 
led straight to Fort Augustus, and had been 
made thirty years before by General Wade. 
Now across that road, some ten miles short of 
the fort, lies a high precipitous hill, called Corry- 



22 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

arack. Up this mountain wall the road is carried 
in seventeen sharp zigzags ; so steep is it that the 
conntry people call it the * Devil's Staircase.' 
Any army holding the top of the pass would 
have an ascending enemy at its mercy, let alone 
an army of Highlanders, accustomed to skulk 
behind rock and shrub, and skilled to rush down 
the most rugged hillsides with the swiftness and 
surefootedness of deer. 

While still some miles distant, Cope learned 
that the Highlanders were already in possession 
of Corryarack. The rumor was premature, but 
it thoroughly alarmed the English general. He 
dared not " attempt the ascent ; to return south 
was against his orders. A council of war, hastily 
summoned, gave him the advice he wished for, 
and on the 28th the army had turned aside and 
was in full retreat on Inverness. 

Meanwhile, the Prince's army was pressing 
forward to meet Cope. The swiftest- footed 
soldiers that ever took the field, the Highlanders 
were also the least heavily- weighted. A bag of 
oatmeal on his back supplied each man's need, 
Charles himself burned his baggage and marched 
at the head of his men as light of foot and as 
stout of heart as the best of them. On the 
morning of the 27th they were to ascend Corry 
arack. The Prince was in the highest spirits. 
As he laced his Highland brogues he cried, 
k Before I take these off I shall have fought with 
Mr. Cope!' Breathless the Highland army 
reached the top of the hill ; they had gained that 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 23 

point of vantage. Eagerly they looked down 
the zigzags on the further side; to their amaze- 
ment not a man was to be seen, their roads lay 
open before them! When they learned from 
deserters the course Cope's army had taken, 
they were as much disappointed as triumphant. 

A body of Highlanders was despatched to try 
to take the barracks at Ruthven, where twelve 
soldiers, under a certain Sergeant Molloy, held 
the fort for the Government. This man showed 
a spirit very different from that of his superior 
officer's. This is his own straightforward account 
of the attack and repulse: 

' Noble General, — They summoned me to 
surrender, but I told him I was too old a soldier 
to part with so strong a place without bloody 
noses. They offered me honorable terms of 
marching out bag and baggage, which I refused. 
They threatened to hang me and my party. I 
said I would take my chance. They set fire to 
the sally-port which I extinguished ; and failing 
therein, went off asking leave to take their dead 
man, which I granted.' 

Honor to Molloy, whatever the color of his 
cockade ! 

Though unsuccessful at Ruthven, some mem- 
bers of his party, before rejoining the Prince's 
army at Dalwhinnie, made an important capture. 
Macpherson of Cluny was one of the most dis- 
tinguished chiefs in the Highlands, ruling his 



24 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

clan with a firm hand, and repressing all thieving 
amongst them. As captain of an independent 
company, he held King George's commission; 
his honor kept him faithful to the Government, 
but his whole heart was on the other side. He 
was taken prisoner in his own house by a party 
' hardly big enough to take a cow, ' and once a 
prisoner in the Highland army, it was no difficult 
task to persuade him to take service with the 
Prince. 

The army now descended into the district of 
Athol. With curious emotion old Tullibardine 
approached his own house of Blair from which 
he had been banished thirty years before. The 
brother who held his titles and properties fled 
before the Highland army, and the noble old 
exile had the joy of entertaining his Prince in 
his own halls. The Perthshire lairds were almost 
all Jacobites. Here at Blair, and later at Perth, 
gentlemen and their following flocked to join 
the Prince. 

One of the most important of these was 
Tullibardine's brother, Lord George Murray, an 
old soldier who had been ' out in the '15.' He 
had real genius for generalship, and moreover 
understood the Highlanders and their peculiar 
mode of warfare. He was no courtier, and un- 
fortunately his blunt, hot-tempered, plain speak- 
ing sometimes ruffled the Prince, too much 
accustomed to the complacency of his Irish 
followers. But all that was to come later. On 
the march south there were no signs of divided 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 25 

counsels. The command of the army was gladly 
confided to Lord George. 

Another important adherent who joined at 
this time was the Duke of Perth, a far less able 
man than Lord George, but endeared to all his 
friends by his gentleness and courage and 
modesty. Brought up in France by a Catholic 
mother, he was an ardent Jacobite, and the first 
man to be suspected by the authorities. As 
soon as the news spread that the Prince had 
landed in the West, the Government sent an 
officer to arrest the young duke. There was a 
peculiar treachery in the way this was attempted. 
The officer, a Mr. Campbell of Inverawe, invited 
himself to dinner at Drummond Castle, and, 
after being hospitably entertained, produced his 
warrant. The Duke retained his presence of 
mind, appeared to acquiesce, and, with habitual 
courtesy, bowed his guest first out of the room ; 
then suddenly shut the door, turned the key and 
made his escape through an ante-room, a back- 
stairs, and a window, out into the grounds. 
Creeping from tree to tree he made his way to a 
paddock where he found a horse, without a 
saddle but with a halter. He mounted, and the 
animal galloped off. In this fashion he reached 
the house of a friend, where he lay hid till the 
time he joined the Prince. 

No Jacobite family had a nobler record of 
services rendered to the Stuarts than the Oliph- 
ants of Gask. The laird had been ' out in the 
'15,' and had suffered accordingly, but he did 



26 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

not hesitate a moment to run the same risks in 
'45. He brought with him to Blair his high 
spirited boy, young Lawrence, who records 
his loyal enthusiasm in a journal full of fine feel- 
ing and bad spelling ! Indeed, one may say that 
bad spelling was, like the ' white rose, ' a badge 
of the Jacobite party. Mistress Margaret 
Oliphant, who with her mother and sisters 
donned the white cockade and waited on their 
beloved Prince at her aunt's, Lady Nairne's, 
house, also kept a journal wherein she regrets in 
ill-spent, fervent words that being ' only a 
woman ' she cannot carry the Prince's banner. 
This amiable and honorable family were much 
loved among their own people. ■ Oliphant is 
king to us ' was a by- word among retainers who 
had lived on their land for generations. But at 
this crisis the shrewd, prosperous Perthshire 
farmers refused to follow their landlord on such 
a desperate expedition. Deeply mortified and 
indignant, the generous, hot-tempered old laird 
forbade his tenants to gather in the harvest 
which that year was early and abundant. As 
Charles rode through the Gask fields he noticed 
the corn hanging over-ripe and asked the cause. 
As soon as he was told, he jumped from his 
horse, cut a few blades with his sword and, in 
his gracious princely way, exclaimed ' There, / 
have broken the inhibition! Now every man 
may gather in his own. ' It was acts like this 
that gained the hearts of gentle and simple alike, 
and explain that passionate affection for Charles 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 



27 



that remained with 
many to the end of 
their days as part of 
their religion. The 
strength of this 
feeling still touehes 
our hearts in many 
a Jacobite song. ' I 
pu'ed my bonnet 
ower my eyne, For 
weel I loued Prince 
Charlie, ' and the 
yearning refrain, 
' Better loued ye 
canna be, Wull ye 
no come back 
again ? ' On the 
3rd Charles entered 
Perth, at the head 
of a body of troops, 
in a handsome suit 
of tartan, but with 
his last guinea in 
his pocket! How- 
ever, requisitions 
levied on Perth and 
the neighboring 
towns did much to 
supply his exche- 
quer, and it was 
with an army in- 
creased in numbers 




Escape of the Duke of Perth 



28 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

and importance, as well as far better organized 
•—thanks to Lord G. Murray — that Charles a 
vveek later continued his route to Edinburgh. 
Having no artillery the Highland army avoided 
Stirling, crossed the Forth, and marched to Lin- 
lithgow, where they expected to fight with 
Gardiner's dragoons. That body however did 
not await their arrival, but withdrew to Cors- 
torphine, a village two miles from Edinburgh. 

The next halt of the Prince's army was at 
Kirkliston. In the neighborhood lay the house 
of New Liston, the seat of Lord Stair, whose 
father was so deeply and disgracefully implicated 
in the massacre of Glencoe. It was remembered 
that a grandson of the murdered Macdonald was 
in the army with the men of his clan. Fearing 
that they would seize this opportunity of aveng- 
ing their cruel wrong, the general proposed 
placing a guard round the house. Macdonald 
hearing this proposal, went at once to the Prince. 
' It is right, ' he said, ' that a guard should be 
placed round the house of New Liston, but that 
guard must be furnished by the Macdonalds of 
Glencoe. If they are not thought worthy of this 
trust they are not fit to bear arms in your Royal 
Highness' cause, and I must withdraw them 
from your standard. ' The passion for revenge 
may be strong in the heart of the Highlander, 
but the love of honor and the sense of loyalty 
are stronger still. The Macdonalds, as we shall 
see, carried their habit of taking their own way 
to a fatal extent. 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 29 

IV 

EDINBURGH 

Meanwhile nothing could exceed the panic 
that had taken possession of the town of Edin- 
burgh. The question of the hour was, could the 
city be defended at all, and if so, could it, in 
case of siege, hold out till Cope might be ex- 
pected with his troops ? That dilatory general, 
finding nothing to do in the North, was return- 
ing to Edinburgh by sea, and might be looked 
for any day. There could be no question of the 
strength of the Castle. It was armed and 
garrisoned, and no army without large guns 
need attempt to attack it. But with the town 
it was different. The old town of Edinburgh, 
as everybody knows, is built along the narrow 
ridge of a hill running from the hollow of Holy- 
rood, in constant ascent, up to the Castle rock- 
On each side narrow wynds and lanes descend 
down steep slopes, on the south side to the 
Grassmarket and Cowgate, on the north — at the 
time of which we write — the sides of the city 
sloped down to a lake called the Norloch, a 
strong position, had the city been properly forti- 
fied. More than two hundred years before, in 
the desolate and anxious days that followed 
Flodden, the magistrates of the city, hourly ex- 
pecting to be invaded, had hastily built a high 
wall round the whole city as it then was. For 



30 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

the time the defence was sufficient. But the 
wall had been built without reference to artillery, 
it had neither towers nor embrasures for mount- 
ing cannons. It was simply a very high, solid, 
park wall, as may be seen to this day by the 
curious who care to visit the last remnants of it, . 
in an out-of-the-way corner near the Grass- 
market. 

If the material defences were weak, the human 
defenders were weaker still. The regular sol- 
diers were needed for the Castle; Hamilton's 
dragoons, stationed at Leith, were of no use in 
the defence of a city, the town guard was merely 
a body of rather inefficient policemen, the 
trained hands mere ornamental volunteers who 
shut their eyes if they had to let off a firearm in 
honor of the king's birthday. As soon as it 
seemed certain that the Highland army was ap- 
proaching Edinburgh, preparations, frantic but 
spasmodic, were made to put the city in a state 
of defence. 

The patriotic and spirited Maclaurin, pro- 
fessor of mathematics, alone and unaided, tried 
to mount cannons on the wall, but not with much 
success. The city determined to raise a regi- 
ment of volunteers; funds were not lacking; it 
was more difficult to find the men. Even when 
companies were formed, their ardor was not 
very great. Rumors and ignorance had ex- 
aggerated the numbers and fierceness of the 
Highland army; quiet citizens, drawn from desk 
or shop, might well shrink from encountering 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 



31 







1 In many a panelled parlor * 

them in the field. Parties were divided in the 
town; the Prince had many secret friends among 
the citizens. In back parlors of taverns 'douce 
writers,' and advocates of Jacobite sympathies, 
discussed the situation with secret triumph; in 
many a panelled parlor high up in those wonder- 
ful old closes, spirited old Jacobite ladies re- 



32 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

called the adventures of the '15. and bright-eyed 
young ones busied hemselves making knots of 
white satin. 'One-third of the men are Jaco- 
bite/ writes a Whig citizen, 'and two-thirds of 
the ladies.' 

On Saturday, 14th, the news reached Edin- 
burgh that the Prince had arrived at Linlithgow, 
and that Gardiner had retired on Corstorphine, 
a village two miles from Edinburgh. Consterna- 
tion was general ; advice was sought from the law 
officers of the Crown, and it was found that they 
had all retired to Dunbar. The Provost was 
not above suspicion. His surname was Stuart; 
no Scotsman could believe that he really meant 
to oppose the chief of his name. 

On Sunday, as the townsfolks were at church 
about eleven o'clock, the firebell rang out its note 
of alarm, scattering the congregation into the 
streets. It was the signal for the mustering of 
the volunteers. The officer in command at the 
Castle was sending the dragoons from Leith to 
reinforce Gardiner at Corstorphine, and the 
volunteers were ordered to accompany them. 
They were standing in rank in the High Street, 
when the dragoons rattled up the Canongate at 
a hard trot; as they passed they saluted their 
brothers in arms with drawn swords and loud 
huzzas, then swept down the West Port. For a 
moment military ardor seized the volunteers, but 
the lamentations and tears of their wives and 
children soon softened their mood again. A 
group of Jacobite ladies in a balcony mocked 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 33 

and derided the civic warriors, but had finally to 
close their windows to prevent stones being 
hurled at them. 

One of the volunteer companies was com- 
posed of University students. Among them was, 
doubtless, more than one stout young heart, 
eager for fame and fighting, but most were more 
at home with their books than their broad- 
swords. 'Oh, Mr. Hew, Mr. Hew,' whispered 
one youth to his comrade, * does not this remind 
you of the passage in Livy where the Gens of 
the Fabii marched out of the city, and the 
matrons and maids of Rome were weeping and 
wringing, their hands?' 'Hold your tongue,' 
said Mr. Hew, affecting a braver spirit, * you'll 
discourage the men.' 'Recollect the end, Mr. 
Hew,' persisted his trembling comrade; 'they all 
perished to a man !' This was not destined to be 
the fate of the Edinburgh volunteers. On the 
march down the West Bow, one by one they 
stole off, up the narrow wynds and doorways, 
till by the time they reached the West Port, only 
the students corps remained, and even its ranks 
were sadly thinned. The remnant were easily 
persuaded that their lives were too precious to 
their country to be rashly thrown away, and 
quietly marched back to the college yards. 

There was no alarm that night. At one 
o'clock the Provost, accompanied by a few of 
the city guard, carrying a lantern before him, 
visited the outposts and found all at their 
places. In the narrow streets of Edinburgh the 



34 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

Eeople were accustomed to transact all their 
usiness out of doors. Next morning (Monday, 
16th,) the streets were already crowded at an 
early hour with an anxious, vociferous crowd. 
At 10 o'clock a man arrived with a message from 
the Prince, which he incautiously proclaimed in 
the street. If the town would surrender it 
should be favorably treated ; if it resisted it must 
expect to be dealt with according to the usages of 
war. Greatly alarmed, the people clamored for 
a meeting, but the Provost refused ; he trusted to 
the dragoons to defend the city. A little after 
noon, the citizens looking across from the Castle 
and the northern windows of their houses, saw 
the dragoons in retreat from Coltbridge. As 
they watched the moving figures, the pace 
quickened and became a regular flight; by the 
time the dragoons were opposite the city on the 
other side of the Norlocn, they were running 
like hares. They made at first for their bar- 
racks at Leith, but the distance still seemed too 
short between them and the terrifying High- 
landers; they never drew rein till they had 
reached Prestonpans, nor did they rest there 
longer than an hour or two, but galloped on, and 
were at Dunbar before nightfall. And yet they 
had not exchanged a blow with their foes! At 
the first sight of a reconnoitering party of horse- 
men, panic had seized them and they had fled. 
This was the celebrated 'Canter of Coltbridge.' 
The effect on the city was disturbing in the 
extreme. A tumultuous meeting was held in 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 35 

council chamber, the volunteers were drawn up 
in the streets. As they stood uncertain what to 
do a man on horseback — it was never known who 
he was — galloped up the Bow, and as he passed 
along the ranks, shouted 'The Highlanders are 
coming, sixteen thousand strong.' 

It was too much for the volunteers, they 
marched up to the Castle and gave in their arms! 
Meanwhile, a packet was handed into the 
council chamber signed C. P., and offering the 
same terms as in the morning, only adding that 
the town must open its gates by two o'clock next 
morning. The cry was unanimous to surrender, 
but to gain time deputies were sent to the Prince 
at Gray's Mill, two miles from Edinburgh, to 
ask for further delay. Hardly had the deputies 
gone when, in through the opposite gate gal- 
loped a messenger from Dunbar, to say that Cope 
had landed there with his troops. Opinion 
now swung round the other way, and men's 
courage rose to the point of speaking about 
resistance. The deputies returned at ten at 
night; Charles, they said, was inexorable and 
stuck to his conditions. To cause a delay, a 
new set of deputies were sent forth at a very late 
hour, and went out by the West Bow in a 
hackney coach. 

To gain time, and then steal another march on 
Cope, was even more important to the Prince 
than to his enemies. There were weak points in 
the wall that might be attacked. The chief 
gate of the city, the Netherbow, lay midway up 



36 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

the High Street, dividing the real borough of 
Edinburgh from the Canongate; on each side 
of this gate the wall descended sharply down 
hill, running along Leith Wynd on the north side 
and St. Mary's Wynd on the south. The 
houses of the latter — Edinburgh houses number- 
ing their ten or twelve stories — were actually 
built on to the wall. By entering one of these, 
active and determined men might clear the wall 
by a fire of musketry from the upper windows, 
and then make an escalade. Another weak 
point was at the point of Leith Wynd, where the 
wall met the Norloch. About midnight Locheil 
and five hundred of his men started to make a 
night attack. They were guided by Mr. Murray 
of Broughton (the Prince's secretary, afterwards 
a traitor,) who had been a student in Edinburgh 
and knew the town well. To avoid chance 
shots from the guns of the Castle, they made a 
wide circle round the town, but so still was the 
night that across the city they could hear the 
watches called in the distant fortress. Swift and 
silent as Red Indians, the Highlanders marched 
in the shadow cast by the high, dark houses of 
the suburbs without arousing the sleeping in- 
mates. They could see cannons on the walls, 
but no sentinels were visible. They determined 
to try fraud before resorting to force. Twenty 
Camerons placed themselves in hiding on each 
side of the gate, sixty stood in the dark recess of 
he Wynd, the rest were at the bottom of the 
lope. One of the number, disguised as the 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 37 

servant of an English officer of dragoons, 
knocked loudly at the gate, demanding admission. 
The watch refused to open and threatened to 
fire. So this stratagem was not successful. 
Already the dawn was beginning to break, and a 
council was held among the leaders of the band 
in low hurried whispers. They were deliberat- 
ing whether they should not retreat, when all at 
once a heavy rumbling noise from within the 
city broke the silence of the night. The hackney 
coach before mentioned had deposited its load 
of deputies at the council chamber and was 
returning to its stable-yard in the Canongate. A 
word to the watchman within and the gates 
swung on their heavy hinges. In rushed the 
body of Camerons, secured the bewildered 
watchmen, and in a few minutes had seized the 
city guard-house and disarmed the soldiers. 
Then they struck up the wild pibroch 'We'll 
awa' to Sheriff muir to haud the Whigs in order,' 
and startled citizens rushing to their windows 
saw in the dim twilight the streets filled with 
plaids and bonnets. The conquerors visited all 
the outposts as quietly as if they were troops re- 
lieving guard. A citizen strolling along by 
the wall early next morning found a Highland 
soldier astride on one of the cannons, 'Surely 
you -are not the same soldiers who were here 
yesterday?' 'Och, no!' was the answer with a 
grave twinkle, 'she be relieved.' 

At noon Prince Charles rode to Holyrood by 
way of Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags. He 



38 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

was on foot as he approached the ancient home 
of his race, but the large and enthusiastic crowd 
which came out to meet him pressed so closely 
upon him in their eagerness to kiss his hand, that 
he had to mount a horse, and rode the last half 
mile between the Duke of Perth and Lord 
Elcho. A gallant young figure he must have 
appeared at that moment — tall and straight and 
fresh-colored, in a tartan coat and blue bonnet, 
with the cross of St. Andrews on his breast. As 
he was about to enter the old palace of Holyrood, 
out of the crowd stepped the noble and vener- 
able figure of Mr. Hepburn of Keith. He drew 
his sword, and, holding it aloft, with grave 
enthusiasm marshalled the Prince up the stairs. 
It was surely a good omen; no man in Scotland 
bore a higher character for learning, goodness, 
and patriotism than Mr. Hepburn; he was 
hardly less respected by the Whigs than the 
Jacobites. 

That same afternoon, at the old Cross in the 
High Street, with pomp of heralds and men-at- 
arms, James VIII. was proclaimed king, and his 
son's commission as regent was read aloud to the 
listening crowd. Loud huzzas almost drowned 
the wild music of the bagpipes, the Highlanders 
in triumph let off their pieces in the air, and 
from every window in the high houses on each 
side ladies fluttered their white handkerchiefs. 
Beside the Cross, beautiful Mrs. Murray of 
Broughton sat on horseback, a drawn sword in 
one hand, while with the other she distributed 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 



39 



white cockades to the crowd. Even grave Whig 
statesmen like the Lord President Forbes were 
disturbed by the enthusiastic Jacobitism that 
possessed all the Scottish ladies. More than one 
followed the example of the high-spirited Miss 
Lumsden, who let her lover clearly understand 




'Och no! she be relieved' 

that she would have nothing more to say to him 
unless he took up arms for the Prince, and 
doubtless more young gallants than Robert 
Strange joined the rebels for no better reason 
than their ladies' command. 

A ball was given at Holyrood that same even- 
ing, and surrounded by all that was bravest and 
most beautiful and brilliant in Scottish society, it 



40 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

was no wonder that Charles felt that this was but 
the beginning of a larger and more complete 
triumph. 



PRESTONPANS 

In less than a month Prince Charles had 
marched through a kingdom, and gained a 
capital, but he felt his triumph insecure till he 
had met his enemies in fair fight. Nor were his 
followers less eager for battle. In a council of 
war held at Holyrood, Charles declared his in- 
tention of leading the army against Cope, and of 
charging in person at its head. ThaU however, 
the chiefs would not hear of; the Prince's life 
was all-important to their cause, and must not 
be rashly exposed to danger. The arms that 
the Edinburgh trained bands had used to so little 
purpose — about a thousand muskets — had fallen 
into the hands of their enemies; but even with 
this addition, the Highland soldiers were in- 
sufficiently accoutred. The gentlemen, who 
marched in the front ranks, were, it is true, 
completely armed with broadsword, musket, 
pistol, and dirk, but in the rank and file many an 
unkempt, half-clothed, ill-fed cateran carried 
merely a bill-hook or scytheblade fixed into a 
long pole, It was the swiftness and splendid 
daring of their onset that made these ill-armed, 
untrained clansmen the equals or more than the 
equals of the regular army that opposed them. 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 41 

In the meantime Cope, with his army of 2,000 
foot, reinforced by the fugitive dragoons, some 
600 men under Gardiner were marching from 
Dunbar. Gardiner, as brave a soldier as he 
was a good and devout Christian was full of 




Mrs. Murray of Broughton distributes cockades to the crowd 

foreboding. The 'canter of Coltbridge' had 
broken his heart; a 'most foul fight,' he called 
it, and added, to a friend who tried to comfort 
him, that there were not ten men in his troop 
whom he could trust not to run away at the 
first fire. No such misgiving seems to have 
disturbed Sir John Cope. On Friday the 20th 
the Hanoverian army reached Prestonpans, and 
formed its ranks on a plain between the sea on 
the north and the ridge of Carberry Hill on the 



42 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

south. The road from Edinburgh to Hadding- 
ton passed through this and this simple old 
general argued that the advancing army would 
be sure to take the easiest road. Fortunately 
Lord George Murray knew better where -the 
the peculiar strength of the Highlanders lay. 

Early on Friday morning the Prince's army 
broke up from their camp at Duddingstone. 
Charles himself was the first man on the field. 
As the troops began their march, he drew his 
sword and cried: 'Gentlemen, I have thrown 
away the scabbard;' high-spirited words which 
found an echo in the hearts of all the brave men 
present. 

The army marched in column, three abreast, 
the various clans holding together under their 
own chiefs. Two miles short of Prestonpans 
Lord George learned the position of Cope's army, 
and at once led his light-footed soldiers up the 
slopes that commanded the plain. The English 
general was hourly expecting to see his enemies ap- 
proach from the west by the road, and he was 
fully prepared to meet them at that point. At 
two in the afternoon, to his amazement, they 
suddenly appeared from the south, marching 
over the ridge of the hill. 

The Hanoverian soldiers had enough spirit 
to receive them with cheers, to which the High- 
landers responded by wild yells. They longed 
ardently to sweep down the slope and give in- 
stant battle, but the nature of the ground made 
this impossible even to a Highland army. Inter- 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 43 

secting the hillside were high stone walls, which 
would have to be scaled under a hot fire from 
below, and at the bottom was a swamp, a wide 
ditch, and a high hedge. A certain gentleman 
in the Prince's army — Mr. Ker of Gordon — 
rode over the ground on his pony to examine its 
possibilities. He went to work coolly as if he 
were on the hunting-field, making breaches in 
the wall and leading his pony through, in spite 
of a dropping fire from the Hanoverians. He 
reported that to charge over such ground was 
impossible. The Highlanders were bitterly dis- 
appointed; their one fear was that Cope should 
again slip away under cover of darkness. To 
prevent this Lord Nairne and 600 Perthshire men 
were sent to guard the road to Edinburgh. See- 
ing that nothing more could be done that night, 
both armies settled down to rest; General Cope 
lay in comfort at Cockenzie, Prince Charles on 
the field ; a bundle of peastraw served for his pil- 
low; a long white cloak thrown over his plaid 
for a covering. 

Among the volunteers who had recently joined 
the Prince was an East Lothian laird called 
Anderson. He had often shot over the fields 
about Prestonpans. During the night he sud- 
denly remembered a path which led from the 
heights, down through the morass on to the plain, 
slightly to the east of Cope's army. He sought 
out Lord George and told him of this path, and 
he, struck with the possibility of making imme- 
diate use of the information, took him without 



44 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

delay to the Prince. Charles was alert on the 
instant, entered into the plan proposed, and the 
next moment the word ot command was passed 
along the sleeping lines. A few moments later 
the whole army was moving along the ridge in 
the dim starlight. But here a difficulty occurred. 
At Bannockburn, and in all great battles after- 
wards, except Killiekrankie, the Macdonalds had 
held the place of honor on the right wing of the 
army. They claimed that position now with 
haughty tenacity. The other clans, equally 
brave and equally proud, disputed the claim. 
It was decided to draw lots to settle the question. 
Lots were drawn, and the place of honor fell to 
the Camerons and Stewarts. An ominous cloud 
gathered on the brows of the Macdonald chiefs, 
but Locheil, as sagacious as he was courteous, 
induced the other chiefs to waive their right, and, 
well content, the clan Macdonald marched on in 
the van. 

Up on the hill the sky was clear, but a thick 
white mist covered the plain. Under cover of 
this the Highlanders passed the morass in the 
one fordable place. In the darkness the Prince 
missed a stepping-stone and slipped into the 
bog, but recovered so quickly that no one had 
time to draw a bad omen from the accident. A 
Hanoverian dragoon, standing sentinel near 
this point, heard the march of the soldiers while 
they were still invisible in the dusk, and galloped 
off to give the alarm, but not before the Highland 
army was free from the swamp and had formed 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 45 

in two lines on the plain. Macdonalds and 
Camerons and Stewarts were in the first line; 
behind, at a distance of fifty yards, the Perth- 
shiremen and other regiments led by Charles 
himself. 

Learning that the enemy was now approaching 
from the east side of the plain, Cope drew up 
his men to face their approach. In the centre 
was the infantry — the steadiest body in his nrniy 
— on his left, near the sea and opposite the Mac- 
donalds, Hamilton's dragoons, on the right, the 
other dragoons under Gardiner, and in front of 
these the battery of six cannon. This should 
have been a formidable weapon against the High- 
landers, who, unfamiliar with artillery, had an 
almost superstitious fear of the big guns, but 
they were merely manned by a half-a-dozen 
feeble old sailors. There was a brief pause as 
the two armies stood opposite each other in the 
sea of mist. The Highlanders muttered a 
short prayer, drew their bonnets down on their 
eyes, and moved forward at a smart pace. At 
that moment a wind rose from the sea and 
rolled away the curtain of mist from between 
the two armies. In front of them the High- 
landers saw their enemy drawn up like a hedge 
of steel. With wild yells they came on, their 
march quickening to a run, each clan charging 
in a close compact body headed by its own 
chief. Even while they rushed on, as resistless 
as a torrent, each man fired his musket deliber- 
ately and with deadly aim, then flung it away and 



46 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

swept on, brandishing his broadsword. A body 
of Stewarts and Camerons actually stormed the 
battery, rushing straight on the muzzles of the 
guns. The old men who had them in charge 
had fled at the first sight of the Highlanders; 
even the brave Colonel Whiteford, who alone 
and unassisted stood to bis guns, had to yield to 
their furious onset. Gardiner's dragoons stand- 
ing behind the battery were next seized by the 
panic; they made one miserable attempt to ad- 
vance, halted, and then wheeling round, dashed 
wildly in every direction. Nor could Hamilton's 
dragoons on the other wing stand the heavy 
rolling fire of the advancing Macdonalds. Mad 
with terror, man and horse fled in blind confu- 
sion, some backwards, confounding their own 
ranks, some along the shore, some actually 
through the ranks of the enemy. 

Only the infantry in the centre stood firm and 
received the onset of the Highlanders with a 
steady fire. A small band of Macgregors, 
armed only with scythe blades,charged against 
this hedge of musketry. This curious weapon 
was invented by James More, a son of Rob Roy 
Macgregor. He was the leader of this party, 
and fell, pierced by five bullets With undaunted 
courage he raised himself on his elbow, and 
shouted, 'Look ye, my lads, I'm not dead; by 
Heaven I shall see if any of you does not do his 
duty. ' In that wild charge, none of the clansman 
failed to 'do his duty.' Heedless of the rain 
of bullets, they rushed to close quarters with the 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 



47 



Hanoverian infantry, who, deserted by the 
dragoons, were now attacked on both sides as 
well as in front. A few stood firm, and the 
gallant Colonel Gardiner put himself at their 




James More wounded at Prestonpans 

head. A blow from a scytheblade in the hands 
of a gigantic Macgregor ended his life, and 
spared him the shame and sorrow of another 
defeat. The Park walls at their back prevented 
the infantry from seeking ignoble security in 
flight, after the fashion of the dragoons, and 
they were forced to lay down their weapons and 



48 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

beg for quarter. Some 400 of them fell, struck 
down by the broadsword and dirks of their enemy, 
more than 700 were taken prisoners, and only a 
few hundreds escaped. 

The battle was won in less than five minutes. 
Charles himself commanded the second col- 
umn, which was only fifty yards behind the 
first, but, by the time he arrived on the scene of 
action, there was nothing left to be done. Noth- 
ing, that is, in securing the victory, but Charles 
at once occupied himself in stopping the carnage 
and protecting the wounded and prisoners. 
'Sir,' cried one of his staff, riding up to him, 
there are your enemies at your feet.' 'They, 
are my father's subjects,' answered Charles 
sadly, turning away. 

In vain did Sir John Cope and the Earl of 
Home try to rally the dragoons. Holding pis- 
tols to the men's heads, they succeeded in collect- 
ing a body in a field near Clement's Wells, and 
tried to form a squadron; but the sound of a 
pistol-shot renewed the panic and off they 
started again at the gallop. There was 
nothing for it but for the officers to put them- 
selves at the head of as many fugitives as they 
could collect, and conduct the flight. Hardly 
did they draw rein till they were safe at Berwick. 

There the unfortunate general was received 
by Lord Mark Ker with the well-known sarcasm 
— 'Sir, I believe you are the first general in 
Europe who has brought the first news of his 
own defeat.' 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 49 

In the meantime, the wounded they had left 
on the field were being kindly cared for by the 
victorious army. Charles despatched a mes- 
senger to bring medical aid — an errand not 
without danger to a single horseman on roads 
covered with straggling bodies of dragoons. 
But the adventure just suited the gallant spirit 
of young Lawrence Oliphant. At Trannet the 
signt of him and his servant at their heels sent 
off a body of dragoons at the gallop. Single 
fugitives he disarmed and dismounted, sending 
the horses back to the Prince by the hands of 
country lads. Once he had to discharge his 
pistol after a servant and pony, but for the most 
part the terrified soldiers yielded at a word. 

Entering the Netherbow, he galloped up the 
streets of Edinburgh shouting, 'Victory! vic- 
tory ? Yrom every window in the High Street 
and Luckenbows white caps looked out, while 
the streets were crowded with eager citizens, 
and joyful hurrahs were heard on every side. 
At Lucky Wilson's, in the Lawn Market, the 
young gentleman alighted, called for breakfast, 
and sent for the magistrates to deliver his 
orders that the gates were to be closed against 
any fugitive dragoons. Hat in hand, the magi- 
strates waited on the Prince's aide-de-camp, 
but at that moment the cry arose that dragoons 
and soldiers were coming up the street. Up 
jumps Mr. Oliphant and out into the street, 
faces eight or nine dragoons, and commands 
them to dismount in the Prince's name. This 



50 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

the craven Hanoverians were quite prepared to 
do. Only one presented his piece at the young 
officer. Mr. Oliphant snapped his pistol at 
him, forgetting that it was empty. Immediately 
half a dozen shots were fired at him, but so 
wildly that none did him any harm beyond 
shattering his buckle, and he retreated hastily 
up one of the dark steep lanes that led into a 
close. 

The commander of the Castle refused to 
admit the fugitives, threatened even to fire on 
them as deserters, and they had to gallop out 
at the West Port and on to Stirling. Another of 
the Prince's officers, Colquhoun Grant, drove a 
party of dragoons before him all the. way into 
Edinburgh, and stuck his bloody dirk into the 
Castle gates as a defiance. 

Sadder was the fate of another Perthshire 
gentleman, as young and as daring as Lawrence 
Oliphant. David Thriepland, with a couple of 
servants, had followed the dragoons for two 
miles from the field; they had fled before him, 
but, coming to a halt, they discovered that 
their pursuers numbered no more than three. 
They turned on them and cut them down with 
their swords. Many years afterwards, when 
the grass was rank and green on Mr. Thriep- 
lands' grave, a child named Walter Scott, sitting 
on it, heard the story from an old lady who had 
herself seen the death of the young soldier. 

The next day (Sunday) the Prince held his 
triumphant entry up the High Street of Edin- 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 5 1 




He galloped up the streets of Edinburgh shouting, "Victory! victory! 



52 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

burgh. Clan after clan marched past, with 
waving plaids and brandished weapons; the 
wild music of the pipes sounded as full of 
menace as of triumph. From every window, in 
the dark, high houses on each side, fair faces 
looked down, each adorned with the white 
cockade. In their excitement the Highlanders 
let off their pieces into the air. By an unfortun- 
ate accident one musket thus fired happened to 
be loaded, and the bullet grazed the temple of a 
Jacobite lady, Miss Nairne, inflicting a slight 
Wound. 'Thank God that this happened to 
me, whose opinions are so well known,' cried the 
high-spirited girl. 'Had a Whig lady been 
wounded, it might have been thought that the 
deed had been intentional. ' 

VI 

THE MARCH TO DERBY 

A successful army, especially an insurgent 
army, should never pause in its onward march. 
If Prince Charles could have followed the flying 
dragoons over the Border into England he 
would have found no preparations made to 
resist him in the Northern counties. Even after 
the King and Government were alarmed by the 
news of the battle of Preston, a full month was 
allowed to pass before an army under General 
Wade arrived at Newcastle on the 29th of 
October. Dutch, Hessian, and English troops 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 53 

were ordered home from Flanders and regiments 
were raised in the country, though at first no 
one seems to have seriously believed in anything 
so daring as an invasion of England by Prince 
Charles and his Highlanders. 

So far there had come no word of encourage- 
ment from the English Jacobites. Still, Charles 
never doubted but that they would hasten to 
join him as soon as he crossed the Border. On 
the very morrow of Prestonpans he sent messen- 

fers to those whom he considered his friends in 
Ingland, telling of his success and bidding them 
be ready to join him. In the meantime he 
waited in Edinburgh till his army should be 
large and formidable enough to undertake the 
march South. After the battle numbers of his 
soldiers had deserted. According to their cus- 
tom, as soon as any clansman had secured as 
much booty as he could conveniently carry, he 
started off home to his mountains to deposit his 
spoil. A stalwart Highlander was seen stagger- 
ing along the streets of Edinburgh with a pier 
glass on his back, and ragged boys belonging to 
the army adorned themselves with gold-laced 
hats, or any old finery they could pick up. 

Many new adherents flocked to join the 
Prince. Among these was the simple-minded 
old Lord Pitsligo. He commanded a body of 
horse, though at his age he could hardly bear 
the fatigues of a campaign. In Aberdeenshire 
— always Jacobite and Episcopalian — Lord 
Lewis Gordon collected a large force; in Perth- 



54 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

shire Lord Ogilvy raised his clan, though neither 
of these arrived in time to join the march South. 
Even a Highland army could not start in mid- 
winter to march through a hostile country with- 
out any preparations. Tents and shoes were 
provided by the city of Edinburgh, and all the 
horses in the neighborhood were pressed for the 
Prince's service. 

On the first day of November the army, 
numbering 6,000 men, started for the Border. 
Lord George led one division, carrying the 
supplies by Moffat and Annandale to the West 
Border. Charles himself commanded the other 
division. They pretended to be moving on 
Newcastle, marched down Tweedside and then 
through Liddesdale. 

On the 8th they crossed the Border. The 
men sheathed their swords and raised a great 
shout. Unfortunately, as he drew his claymore, 
Locheil wounded his hand, and his men, seeing 
the blood flow, declared it to be a bad omen. 

But fortune still seemed to follow the arms of 
the adventurer. Carlisle was the first strong 
town on the English Border, and though insuffi- 
ciently garrisoned, was both walled and de- 
fended by a Castle. The mayor, a vain-glorious 
fellow, was ambitious of being the first man to 
stay the victorious army, and published a pro- 
clamation saying that he was not 'Patterson, a 
Scotchman, but Pattieson, a true-hearted Eng- 
lishman, who would defend his town against all 
comers.' 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 55 

A false report that Wade was advancing from 
the West made Charles turn aside and advance to 
Brampton in the hope of meeting him, but the 
roads were rough, the weather was wild and cold, 
the Hanoverian general was old, and again, as 
at Corryarack, Charles prepared to meet an 
enemy that never appeared. 

In the meantime a division of the army had 
returned to Carlisle and was laying siege to it 
with great vigor. Lord George Murray and 
the Duke of Perth worked in the trenches in 
their shirt sleeves. The sound of bullets in 
their ears, the sight of formidable preparations 
for an assault, were too much for the mayor and 
his citizens; on the 13th, the 'true-hearted Eng- 
lishmen' hung out a white flag, and the Prince's 
army marched in and took possession. It was 
another success, as sudden and complete as any 
of the former ones. But there were ominous 
signs even at this happy moment. The com- 
mand of the siege of Carlisle had been given to 
the Duke of Perth, and Lord George Murray, the 
older and abler general, resented the slight. He 
sent in his resignation, but the idea of losing the 
one general of any experience they had, 
created consternation among the chiefs. The 
crisis would have become serious but for the 
generous good sense and modesty of the Duke 
of Perth, who sent in his resignation also to 
the Prince. A more ominous fact was that they 
had been almost a week in England and no one 
had declared for them. Charles refused to let 



56 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

anything damp his hopefulness Lancashire, 
was the stronghold of Jacobitism. Once in 
Lancashire, gentlemen and their following would 
flock to join him. 

The road between Carlisle and Preston lies 
over bare, stony heights, an inhospitable country 
in the short, bleak days and long nights of Nov- 
ember. Charles shared every hardship with 
his soldiers. He had a carriage but he never 
used it, and it was chiefly occupied by Lord 
Pitsligo. With his target on his shoulder he 
marched alongside of the soldiers, keeping up 
with their rapid pace, and talking to them in 
scanty Gaelic. He seldom dined, ate one good 
meal at night, lay down with his clothes on, and 
was up again at four next morning. No wonder 
that the Highlanders were proud of a Prince who 
could eat a dry crust, sleep on pease-straw, 
dine in four minutes, and win a battle in five.' 
Going over Shap Fell he was so overcome by 
drowsiness and cold that he had to keep hold of 
one of the Ogilivies by the shoulderbelt and 
walked some miles half asleep. Another time 
the sole of his boot was quite worn out, and at 
the next village he got the blacksmith to nail a 
thin iron plate to the boot. 'I think you are 
the first that ever shod the son of a king,' he 
said, laughing as he paid the man. 

Still entire silence on the part of the English 
Jacobites. The people in the villages and towns 
through which they passed looked on the un- 
couth strangers with ill-concealed aversion and 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 



57 




Going over Shap Fell 

fear. Once going to his quarters in some small 
town the 'gentle Locheil' found that the good 
woman of the house had hidden her children 
in a cupboard, having heard that the High- 
landers were cannibals and ate children ! 

The town of Preston was a place of ill omen 
to the superstitious Highlanders. There, thirty 
years before, their countrymen had been dis- 
astrously defeated. They had a presentiment 
that they too would never get beyond that point. 
To destroy this fear, Lord George Murray 
marched half his army across the river and en- 
camped on the further side. 



58 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

Manchester was the next halting-place, and 
there the prospects were rather brighter. An 
enterprising Sergeant Dickson hurried on in front. 
He marched about the streets recruiting, and 
managed to raise a score of recruits. In Man- 
chester society there was a certain Jacobite 
element; on Sunday the church showed a crowd 
of ladies in tartan cloaks and white cockades, 
and a nonjuring clergyman preached in favor 
of the Prince's cause. Among the officers who 
commanded the handful of men calling itself 
the Manchester Regiment, were three brothers 
of the name of Deacon, whose father, a non- 
juring clergyman, devoted them all gladly to 
the cause. Another, Syddel, a wig-maker, had 
as a lad of eleven seen his father executed as a 
Jacobite in the '15, and had vowed undying 
vengeance against the house of Hanover. Man- 
chester was the only place in England that had 
shown any zeal in the Prince's cause, and it 
only contributed some few hundred men and 
3,000/. of money. 

The situation seemed grave to the leaders of 
the Prince's army He himself refused to re-, 
cognise -any other fact than that every day 
brought him nearer to London. On October 31 
the army left Manchester. At Stockport they 
crossed the Mersey, the Prince wading up to the 
middle. Here occurred a very touching incident. 
A few Cheshire gentlemen met Charles at this 
point, and with them came an aged lady, Mrs. 
Skyring. As a child she remembered her mother 
lifting her up to see Charles II. land at Dover. 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 59 

Her parents were devoted Cavaliers, and des- 
pite the ingratitude of the royal family, loyalty 
was an hereditary passion with their daughter. 
For years she had laid aside half her income and 
had sent it to the exiled family, only concealing 
the name of the donor as being of no interest to 
them. Now, she had sold her jewels and plate, 
and brought the money in a purse as an offering 
to Charles's hand, and gazing at his face said, 
'Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in 
peace.' 

The Highland forces were in the very centre 
of England and had not yet encountered an 
enemy, but now they were menaced on two sides. 
General Wade — ' Grandmother Wade' the Jaco- 
bite soldiers called him — by slow marches 
through Yorkshire had arrived within three 
days' march of them on one side, while, far 
more formidable, in front of them at Stafford 
lay the Duke of Cumberland with 10,000 men. 
He was a brave leader, and the troops under 
him were seasoned and experienced. At last 
the English Government had awakened up to 
the seriousness of the danger which they had 
made light of as long as it only affected Scotland. 
When news came that the Scots had got beyond 
Manchester, a most unmanly panic prevailed in 
London. Shops were shut, there was a run on 
the Bank, it has even been asserted that George 
II. himself had many of his valuables removed 
on to yachts in the Thames, and held himself 
in readiness to fly at any moment. 



60 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

The Duke of Cumberland and his forces were 
the only obstacles between the Prince's army and 
London. Lord George Murray, with his usual 
sagacity, determined to slip past this enemy 
also, as he had already slipped past Wade. 
While the Prince, with one division of the army, 
marched straight for Derby, he himself led the 
remaining troops apparently to meet the Duke 
of Cumberland. That able general fell into 
the snare and marched up his men to meet the 
Highlanders at Congleton. Then Lord George 
broke up his camp at midnight (of December 2), 
and, marching across country in the darkness, 
joined the Prince at Leek, a day's journey short 
of Derby. By this clever stratagem the High- 
land army got a start of at least a day's march 
on their way to London. 

On the 4th, the Highland army entered Der- 
by, marching in all day in detachments. Here 
Charles learned the good news from Scotland 
that Lord John Drummond had landed at 
Montrose with 1,000 French soldiers and supplies 
of money and arms. Never had fortune seemed 
to shine more brightly on the young Prince. He 
was sure now of French assistance, he shut his 
eyes to the fact that the English people were 
either hostile or indifferent; if it came to a battle 
he was confident that hundreds of the enemy 
would desert to his standard. The road to 
London and to a throne lay open before him! 
That night at mess he seriously discussed how 
he should enter London in triumph. Should it 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 



61 



be in Highland or English dress? On horse- 
back or on foot ? Did he notice, one wonders, 
that his gay anticipations were received in omin- 
ous silence by the chiefs? At least the private 
soldiers of his army shared his hopes. On the 




* Many had their broadswords and dirks sharpened * 

afternoon of the 5th many had their broadswords 
and dirks sharpened, and some partook of the 
Sacrament in the churches. They all felt that 
a battle was imminent. 

Next morning a council of war was held. 
Charles was eager to arrange for an immediate 
advance on London. Success seemed to lie 
within his grasp. Lord George Murray rose as 
spokesman for the rest. He urged immediate 



62 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

retreat to Scotland! Two armies lay on either 
hand, a third was being collected to defend 
London. Against 30,000 men what could 5,000 
avail ? He had no faith in a French invasion, he 
was convinced that nothing* was to be looked for 
from the English Jacobites. 'Rather than go 
back, I would I were twenty* feet underground,' 
Charles cried in passionate disappointment. 
He argued, he commanded, he implored; the 
chiefs were inexorable, and it was decided that 
the retreat should begin next morning before 
daybreak. This decision broke the Prince's 
heart and quenched his spirit; never again did 
his buoyant courage put life into his whole army. 
Next morning he rose sullen and enraged, and 
marched in gloomy silence in the rear. 

All the private soldiers and many officers be- 
lieved they were being led against the Duke of 
Cumberland. When returning daylight showed 
that they were retreating by the same road on 
which they had marched so hopefully two days 
before, they were filled with grief and rage. 
* Would God,' writes a certain brave Macdonald, 
'we had pushed on though we had all been cut 
to pieces, when we are in a condition for fighting 
and doing honor to our noble Prince and the 
glorious cause we had taken in hand.' The dis- 
trust caused in the Prince's mind by Lord 
George's actions had, later, the most fatal effect. 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 63 

VII 

THE RETREAT 

Never, perhaps, in any history was there a 
march more mournful than that of the Highland 
army from Derby. These soldiers had never 
known defeat, and yet there they were, in full 
retreat through a hostile country. So secret 
and rapid were their movements that they had 
gained two full days' march before the Duke of 
Cumberland had any certain news of their re- 
treat. Though he started at once in pursuit, 
mounting a body of infantry on horses that they- 
might keep up with the cavalry, and though all 
were fresh and in good condition, it was not till 
the 18th that he overtook the Prince's army in 
the wilds of Cumberland. Lord George Mur- 
ray, looking upon himself as responsible for the 
safety of the army, had sent on the first division 
under the Prince and himself brought up the 
rear with the baggage and artillery. In the 
hilly country of the North of England, it was no 
light task to travel with heavy baggage. The 
big wagons could not be dragged up the steep ill- 
made roads, and the country people were sullenly 
unwilling to lend their carts. The general was 
reduced to paying sixpence for every cannon 
ball that could be carried up the hills. The 
Prince was already at Penrith on the 17th, but 
-Lord George had been obliged to stop six miles 



64 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

short of that point. Marching before daybreak 
on the 18th, he reached a village called Clifton 
as the sun rose. A body of horsemen stood 
guarding the village; the Highlanders, exhilar- 
ated at meeting a foe again, cast their plaids and 
rushed forward. On this the Hanoverians — a 
mere body of local yeomanry — fled. Among a 
few stragglers who were taken prisoner was a 
footman of the Duke of Cumberland, who told 
his captors that his master with 4,000 cavalry 
was following close behind them. Lord George 
resolved to make a stand, knowing that nothing 
would be more fatal than allowing the dragoons 
to fall suddenly on his troops when they had 
their backs turned. He had a body of Mac- 
donalds and another of Stuarts with him; he 
found also some two hundred Macphersons, 
under their brave commander Cluny, guarding a 
bridge close to the village. The high road here 
ran between a wall on one side, and fields en- 
closed by high hedges and ditches on the other. 
On either side he could thus place his soldiers 
under cover. As evening fell he learned that 
the Hanoverian soldiers were drawn up on the 
moor, about a mile distant. He sent some of 
his men to a point where they should be partly 
visible to the enemy over a hedge ; these he caused 
to pass and repass, so as to give a delusive idea of 
numbers. When the night fell the Highland 
soldiers were drawn up along the wall on the 
road, and in the enclosures behind the hedges; 
Lord George and Cluny stood with drawn swords 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 65 

on the highway. Every man stood at his post on 
the alert, in breathless silence. Though the 
moon was up the night was cloudy and dark, 
but in a fitful gleam the watchful general saw 
dark forms approaching in a mass behind a 
hedge. In a rapid whisper he asked Cluny what 
was to be done. * I will charge sword in hand if 
you order me,' came the reply, prompt and 
cheery. A volley from the advancing troops de- 
cided the question. 'There is no time to be lost; 
we must charge,' cried Lord George, and raising 
the Highland war cry ' Claymore, Claymore,' he 
was the first to dash through the hedge (he lost 
his hat and wig among the thorns, and fought 
the rest of the night bareheaded!). The dra- 
goons were forced back on to the moor, while 
another body of horse was similarlv driven back 
along the high road by the Stuarts and Mac- 
donalds of Glengarry. About a dozen High- 
landers, following too eagerly in pursuit, were 
killed on this moor, but the loss on the other 
side was far greater. Nor did the Duke of 
Cumberland again attack the retreating enemy; 
he had learned, like the other generals before 
him, the meaning of a Highland onset. 

A small garrison of Highlanders had been left 
in Carlisle, but these rejoined the main army as 
it passed through the town. There was an 
unwillingness among the soldiers to hold a fort 
that was bound to be taken by the enemy. 
Finally the Manchester regiment consented to 
remain, probably arguing, in the words of one 



66 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 



of the English volunteers, that they 'might as 
well be hanged in England as starved in Scot- 
land.' 

The Esk was at this time in flood, running 
turbid and swift, But the Highlanders have a 
peculiar way of crossing deep rivers. They 




'The Prince eaught him by the hair' 

stand shoulder to shoulder, with their arms 
linked, and so pass in a continuous chain across. 
As Charles was fording the stream on horse- 
back, one man was swept away from the rest and 
was being rapidly carried down. The Prince 
caught him by the hair, shouting in Gaelic, 
'Cohear, cohear!' 'Help, help!' 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 67 

They were now again on Scottish ground, and 
the question was, whither were they to go next ? 
Edinburgh, immediately after the Prince's de- 
parture, had gladly reverted to her Whig alle- 
giance. She was garrisoned and defended; 
any return thither was practically out of the 
question. It was resolved that the army should 
retire to the Highlands through the West 
country. 

Dumfries, in the centre of the Covenanting 
district, had always been hostile to the Stuarts. 
Two months before, when the Highland army 
marched south, some of her citizens had des- 
poiled them of tents and baggage. To revenge 
this injury, Charles marched to Dumfries and 
levied a large fine on the town. The Provost, 
Mr. Carson, was noted for his hostility to the 
Jacobites. He was warned that his house was 
to be burned, though the threat was not carried 
out. He had a daughter of six years old at the 
time ; when she was quite an old lady she told 
Sir Walter Scott that she remembered being 
carried out of the house in the arms of a High- 
land officer. She begged him to point out the 
Pretender to her. This he consented to do, after 
the little girl had solemnly promised always to 
call him the Prince in future. 

An army which had been on the road con- 
tinuously for more than two winter months, 
generally presents a sufficiently dilapidated 
appearance; still more must this have been the 
case with the Highland army, ill-clad and ill- 



68 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

shod to begin with. The soldiers — hardly more 
than 4,000 now — who on Christmas day marched 
into Glasgow, had scarcely a whole pair of 
boots or a complete suit of tartans among them. 
This rich and important town was even more 
hostile than Dumfries to the Jacobites, but it 
was necessity more than revenge that forced 
the Prince to levy a heavy sum on the citizens, 
and exact besides 12,000 shirts, 6,000 pairs of 
stockings, and 6,000 pairs of shoes. 

At Stirling, whither the Prince next led his 
army, the prospects were much brighter. Here 
he joined was joined by the men raised in Aber- 
deenshire under Lord Lewis Gordon, Lord 
Strathallan's Perthshire regiment, and the 
French troops under Lord John Drummond. 
The whole number of his army must have 
amounted to not much less than 9,000 men. 

The Duke of Cumberland had given up the 
pursuit of the Highland army after Carlisle; an 
alarm of a French invasion having sent him 
hurrying back to London. In his stead General 
Hawley had been sent down to Scotland and 
was now in Edinburgh at the head of 8,000 men. 
He was an officer trained in the Duke of Cum- 
berland's school, severe to his soldiers and re- 
lentlessly cruel to his enemies. A vain and 
boastful man, he looked with contempt on the 
Highland army, in spite of the experience of 
General Cope. On the 16th he marched out of 
Edinburgh with all his men, anticipating an 
easy victory. Lord George Murray was at 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 69 

Linlithgow, and slowly retreated before the 
enemy, but not before he had obtained full in- 
formation of their numbers and movements. 
On the nights of January 15 and 16, the two 
armies lay only seven miles apart, the Prince's 
at Bannockburn and General Hawley's at Fal- 
kirk. From the one camp the lights of the 
other were visible. The Highland army kept 
on the alert, expecting every hour to be attacked. 

All the day of the 16th they waited, but there 
was no movement on the part of the English 
forces. On the 17th the Prince's horse recon- 
noitered and reported perfect inactivity in Haw- 
ley's camp. The infatuated general thought so 
lightly of the enemy that he was giving himself 
up to amusement. 

The fair and witty Lady Kilmarnock lived in 
the neighborhood at Callender House. Her 
husband was with the Prince, and she secretly 
favored the same cause. By skilful flattery and 
hospitablity, she so fascinated the English 
general that he recklessly spent his days in her 
company, forgetful of the enemy and entirely 
neglectful of his soldiers. 

Charles knew that the strength of his army 
lay in its power of attack, and so resolved to 
take the offensive. The high road between 
Bannockburn and Falkirk runs in a straight 
line in front of an old and decaying forest called 
Torwood. Along this road, in the face of the 
English camp, marched Lord John Drummond, 
displaying all the colors in the army, and mak- 



70 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

ing a brave show with the cavalry and two regi- 
ments. Their advance was only a feint. The 
main body of the army skirted round to the 
south of the wood, then marched across broken 
country — hidden at first by the trees and later 
by the inequalities of the ground — till they got to 
the back of a ridge called Falkirk Muir, which 
overlooked the English camp. Their object 
was to gain the top of this ridge before the enemy 
and then to repeat the manoeuvres of Preston- 
pans. 

Meanwhile, the English soldiers were all un- 
conscious, and their general was enjoying him- 
self at Callender House. At eleven o'clock 
General Huske, the second in command, saw 
Lord John Drummond's advance, and sent an 
urgent message to his superior officer. He, 
however, refused to take alarm, sent a message 
that the men might put on their accoutrements, 
and sat down to dinner with his fascinating 
hostess. At two o'clock, General Huske, looking 
anxiously through his spy-glass, saw the bulk of 
the Highland army sweeping round to the back 
of the ridge. 

A messenger was instantly despatched to 
Callender House. At last Hawley was aroused 
to the imminence of the danger. Leaving the 
dinner table, he leaped on his horse and arrived 
in the camp at a gallop, breathless and bare- 
headed. He trusted to the rapidity of his cavalry 
to redeem the day. He placed himself at the 
head of the dragoons, and up the ridge they rode 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 71 

at a smart trot. It was a race for the top. The 
dragoons on their horses were the first to arrive, 
and stood in their ranks on the edge of the hill. 
From the opposite side came the Highlanders 
in three lines; first the clans (the Macdonalds, 
of course, on the right), then the Aberdeenshire 
and Perthshire regiments, lastly cavalry and 
Lord John Drummond's Frenchmen. Undis- 
mayed, nay, rather exhilarated by the sight of 
of the three regiments of dragoons drawn up to 
receive them, they advanced at a rapid pace. 
The dragoons, drawing their sabres, rode 
at full trot to charge the Highlanders. With 
the steadiness of old soldiers, the clans % came on 
in their ranks, till within ten yards of the enemy. 
Then Lord George gave the signal by presenting 
his own piece, and at once a withering volley 
broke the ranks of the dragoons. About 400 fell 
under this deadly fire and the rest fled, fled as 
wildly and ingloriously as their fellows had done 
at Coltbridge or Prestonpans. A wild storm of 
rain dashing straight in their faces during the 
attack added to the confusion and helplessness 
of the dragoons. The right and centre of 
Hawley's infantry were at the same instant 
driven back by the other clans, Camerons and 
Stewarts and Macphersons. The victory would 
have been complete but for the good behavior 
of three regiments at the right ofHawley's 
army, Price's, Ligoniers', and Barrel's. From 
a point of vantage on the edge of a ravine they 
poured such a steady fire on the left wing of the 



11 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

Highlanders, that they drove them back and 
forced them to fly in confusion. Had the vic- 
torious Macdonalds only attacked these reg- 
iments, the Highland would have been vic- 
torious all along the line. Unfortunately they 
had followed their natural instinct instead of 
the word of command, and flinging away their 
gUns, were pursuing the fugitive dragoons down 
the ridge. The flight of the Hanoverians was 
so sudden that it caused suspicion of an ambush. 
The Prince was lost in the darkness and rain. 

The pipers had thrown their pipes to their 
boys, had gone in with the claymore, and 
could not sound the rally. It was not a complete 
victory for Charles, but it was a sufficiently 
complete defeat for General Hawley, who lost 
his guns. The camp at Falkirk was abandoned 
after the tents had been set on fire, and the 
general with his dismayed and confused soldiers 
retired to make light of his defeat and to ex- 
plain it away, though to Cumberland he said 
that his heart was broken; but the news of the 
battle spread consternation all over oyer Eng- 
land, and it was felt that no one but the Duke 
of Cumberland was fit to deal with such a stub- 
born and daring enemy. 

The Prince's army did not reap so much ad- 
vantage from their victory as might have been 
expected ; their forces were in too great confusion 
to pursue the English general, and on the 
morrow of the battle many deserted to their 
own homes, carrying off their booty. A more 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 



73 



serious loss was the defection of the clan Glen- 
garry. The day after the battle a young Mac- 
donald, a private soldier of Clanranald's com- 
pany, was withdrawing the charge from a gun 
he had taken on the field. He had abstracted 




MIL--! 



K-4 



The poor boy fell, mortally wounded 

the bullet, and, to clean the barrel, fired off the 
piece. Unfortunately it had been double loaded, 
and the remaining bullet struck Glengarry's 
second son, (Eneas, who was in the street at the 
time. The poor boy fell, mortally wounded, in 



74 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

the arms of his comrades, begging with his last 
breath that no vengeance should be exacted for 
what was purely accidental. It was asking too 
much from the feelings of the clansman. They 
indignantly demanded that blood should atone 
for blood. Clanranald would gladly have saved 
his clansman, but dared not risk a feud which 
would have weakened the Prince's cause. So 
another young life as innocent as the first was 
sacrificed to clan jealousy. The young man's 
own father was the first to fire on his son, to 
make sure that death should be instantaneous. 
Young Glengarry was buried with all military 
honors, Charles himself being the chief mourner ; 
but nothing could appease the angry pride of the 
clan, and the greater part of them returned to 
their mountains without taking any leave. 



VIII 

IN THE HIGHLANDS 

On January 30 the Duke of Cumberland arrived 
in Edinburgh. His reception was a curious 
parody of Charles's brilliant entry four months 
before. The fickle mob cheered the one as 
well as the other; the Duke occupied the very 
room at Holyrood that had been Charles's; 
where the one had danced with Jacobite beau- 
ties, the other held a reception of Whig ladies. 
Both were fighting their father's battle; both 
were young men of five-and-twenty. But here 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 75 

likeness gives way to contrast; Charles was 
graceful in person, and of dignified and attractive 
presence; his cousin, Cumberland, was already 
stout and unwieldly, and his coarse and cruel 
nature had traced unpleasant lines on his face. 
He was a poor general but a man of undoubted 
courage. Yet he had none of that high sense of 
personal honor that we associate with a good 
soldier. In Edinburgh he found many of the 
English officers who had been taken prisoner at 
Prestonpans. They had been left at large on 
giving their word not to bear arms against the 
Prince. Cumberland declared that this ' parole' 
or promise was not binding, and ordered them to 
return to their regiments. A small number — 
it is right that we should know and honor their 
names — Sir Peter Halket, Mr. Ross, Captain 
Lucy Scott, and Lieutenants Farquharson and 
Cumming, thereupon sent in their resignations, 
saying that the Duke was master of their com- 
missions but not of their honor. 

On the 30th the Duke and his soldiers were at 
Linlithgow, and hoped to engage the Highland 
army next day near Falkirk. But on the next 
day's march they learned from straggling High- 
landers that the enemy had already retired be- 
yond the Forth. They had been engaged in a 
futile siege of Stirling Castle. The distant 
sound of an explosion which was heard about 
midday on the 1st, proved to be the blowing up 
of the powder magazine, the last act of the High- 
landers before withdrawing from Stirling. This 



76 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

second, sudden retreat was as bitter to the 
Prince as the return from Derby. After the 
battle at Falkirk he looked forward eagerly and 
confidently to fighting Cumberland on the same 
ground. But there was discontent and discus- 
sion in the camp. Since Derby the Prince had 
held no councils, and consulted with no one but 
Secretary Murray and his Irish officers. The 
chiefs were dispirited and deeply hurt, and, as 
usual, the numbers dwindled daily from de- 
sertion. In the midst of his plans for the 
coming battle, Charles was overwhelmed by a 
resolution on the part of the chiefs to break up 
the camp and to retire without delay to the 
Highlands. Again he saw his hopes suddenly 
destroyed, again he had to yield with silent rage 
and bitter disappointment. 

The plan of the chiefs was to withdraw on 
Inverness, there to attack Lord Loudon (who 
held the fort for King George) ; to rest and recruit 
each clan in its own country, till in the spring 
they could take the field again with a fresher and 
larger army. Lord George Murray led one 
division by the east coast and Aberdeen, to the 
rendezvous near Inverness, Charles led the other 
by General Wade's road through Badenoch and 
Athol. Cumberland with his heavy troops and 
baggage could not overtake the light-footed 
Highlanders; by the time he reached Perth he 
was six days' march behind. He sent old Sir 
Andrew Agnew to garrison the house of Blair, 
and other small companies to occupy all the 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 77 

chief houses in Athol. He himself retired with 
the main body to Aberdeen, and there waited 
for milder weather. 

In the neighborhood of Inverness lies the 
country of the Mackintoshes. The laird of 
that ilk, was a poor-spirited stupid man. It was 
his simple political creed that that king was the 
right one who was willing and able 'to give a 
half-guinea to-day and another to-morrow/ 
That was probably the pay he drew as officer in 
one of King George's Highland companies. Of 
a very different spirit was his wife. Lady 
Mackintosh was a Farquharson of Invercauld; 
in her husband's absence she raised a body of 
mixed Farquharsons and Mackintoshes, several 
hundred strong, for the Prince. These she 
commanded herself, riding at their head in a 
tartan habit with pistols at her saddle. Her 
soldiers called her ' Colonel Anne.' Once in a 
fray between her irregular troops and the militia, 
her husband was taken prisoner and brought 
before his own wife. She received him with a 
military salute, 'Your servant, captain;' to 
which he replied equally shortly, 'Your servant, 
colonel.' 

This high-spirited woman received Charles as 
her guest on February 16 at the castle of Moy, 
twelve miles from Inverness. 

Having learnt that Charles was staying there 
with a small guard, Lord Loudon conceived the 
bold plan of capturing the Prince, and so putting 
an end to the war once for all. On Sunday the 



78 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

16th, at nightfall, he started with 1,500 men with 
all secrecy and despatch. Still the secret had 
oozed out, and the dowager Lady Mackintosh 
sent a boy to warn her daughter-in-law and the 
Prince. The boy was both faithful and saga- 
cious. Finding the high road already full of 
soldiers, he skulked in a ditch till they were past, 
then, by secret ways, over moor and moss, run- 
ning at the top of his pace, he sped on, till, 
faint and exhausted, he reached the house at 
five o'clock in the morning, and panted out the 
news that Loudon's men were not a mile away! 
The Prince was instantly aroused, and in a few 
minutes was out of the house and off to join 
Locheil not more than a mile distant. As it 
happened, Lord Loudon's troops had already 
been foiled and driven back by a bold manoeuvre 
of some of 'Colonel Anne's' men. A black- 
smith with men — two pipers amongst them 
— were patrolling the woods near the high 
road, when in the dim morning twilight they 
saw a large body of the enemy approaching. 
They separated, planted themselves at intervals 
under cover, fired rapidly and simultaneously, 
shouted the war cries of the various clans, 
Locheil, Keppoch, Glengarry, while the pipers 
blew up their pipes furiously behind. The 
advancing soldiers were seized with panic, and 
flying wildly back, upset the ranks of the rear 
and filled them with the same consternation. 
The 'Rout of Moy' was hardly more creditable 
to the Hanoverian arms than the 'Canter of 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 



79 




The 'Rout of Moy* 

Coltbridge' In this affair only one man fell 
MacRimmon, the hereditary piper of the Mac- 
leods. Before leaving Skye he had prophesied 
his own death in the lament, 'Macleod shall 
return, but MacRimmon shall never/ 

The next day, February 18, Charles at the 



80 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

head of a body of troops, marched to besiege 
Inverness. He found that town already evac- 
uated: Lord Loudon had too little faith in his 
men to venture another meeting with the enemy. 
Two days later Fort George also fell into the 
Prince's hands. 

During the next six weeks the Highland 
army was employed in detachments against the 
enemies who surrounded them on all 
sides. Lord John Drummond took Fort Au- 
gustus, Locheil and others besieged — but in 
vain — the more strongly defended Fort William. 
Lord Gromarty pursued Lord Loudon into 
Sutherland. But the most notable and gallant 
feat of arms was performed by Lord George 
Murray. He marched a body of his own Athol 
men, and another of Macphersons under Cluny 
— 700 men in all — down into his native district 
of Athol. At nightfall they started from Dal- 
whinnie, before midnight they were at Dalna- 
spidal, no one but the two leaders having any 
idea of the object of the expedition. It was the 
middle of March; at that season they might 
count on five hours of darkness before daybreak. 
It was then explained to the men that they were 
to break up into some thirty small companies, 
and each was to march to attack one of the Eng- 
lish garrisons placed in all the considerable 
houses in the neighborhood. It was necessary 
that each place should be attacked at the same 
time, that the alarm might not spread. By 
daybreak all were to reassemble at the Falls of 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 81 

Bruar, within a mile or two of Castle Blair. One 
after the other the small parties moved off 
swiftly and silently in the darkness, one march- 
ing some ten miles off to the house of Faskally, 
others attacking Lude, Kinnachin, Blairfettie, 
and many other houses where the English gar- 
risons were sleeping in security. Meanwhile 
Lord George and Cluny, with five-and-twenty 
men and a few elderly gentlemen, went straight 
to the Falls of Bruar. In the grey of the morn- 
ing a man from the village of Blair came up 
hastily with the news that Sir Andrew Agnew 
had got the alarm, and with several hundred 
men was scouring the neighborhood and was 
now advancing towards the Falls! Lord 
George might easily have escaped up the pass, 
but if he failed to be at the rendezvous, each 
small body as it came in would be surrounded 
and overpowered by the enemy. The skilful 
general employed precisely the same ruse as 
had been so successful at the Rout of Moy. 

He put his followers behind a turf wall at 
distant intervals, displayed the colors in a con- 
spicious place, and placed his pipers to advan- 
tage. As Sir Andrew came in sight, the sun 
rose, and was flashed back by brandished broad- 
swords behind the turf wall. All along the line 
plaids seemed to be waving, and heads appeared 
and disappeared as if a large body of men were 
behind; while the pipes blew up a clamorous 
pibroch, and thirty men shouted for three hun- 
dred. Sir Andrew fell into the snare, and 



82 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

Eromptly marched his men back again. One 
y one the other parties came in: some thirty 
houses had yielded to them, and they brought 
three hundred prisoners with them. 

After this success Lord George actually at- 
tempted to take the House of Blair. It was a 
a hopeless enterprise ; the walls of the house were 
seven feet thick, and Lord George had only 
two small cannons. 'I daresay the man's 
mad, knocking down his own brother's house,' 
said the stout old commander, Sir Andrew, 
watching how little effect the shot had on the 
walls. Lord George sent to Charles for rein- 
forcements when it began to seem probable that 
he would be able to reduce the garrison by 
famine, but Charles, embittered and resentful, 
and full of unjust suspicion against his general, 
refused any help, and on March 31 Lord 
George had to abandon the siege and withdraw 
his men. The Prince's suspicions, though unjust, 
were not unnatural. Lord George had twice 
advised retreat, where audacity was the only 
way to success. 

IX 

CULLODEN 

In the meantime the weeks were rolling on. 
The grey April of the North, if it brought little 
warmth, was at least lengthening the daylight, 
and melting the snow from the hills, and lower- 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 83 

ing the floods that had made the rivers im- 
passable. Since the middle of February the 
Duke of Cumberland and his army of eight 
thousand men — horse and infantry — had been 
living at free quarters in Aberdeen. He bullied 
the inhabitants, but he made careful provision 
for his army. English ships keeping along the 
coast were ready to supply both stores and am- 
munition as soon as the forces should move. 
With the savage content of a wild animal that 
knows that his prey cannot escape, the duke 
was in no hurry to force on an engagement till 
the weather should be more favorable. 

To the Highland army every week's delay 
was a loss. Many of the clansmen had scattered 
to their homes in search of subsistence, for funds 
were falling lower and lower at Inverness. 
Fortune was treating Charles harshly at this 
time. Supplies had been sent once and again 
from France, but the ships that had brought 
them had either fallen into enemy's hands, or 
had been obliged to return with their errand 
unaccomplished. His soldiers had now to be 
paid in meal, and that in insufficient quantities. 
There was thus discontent in the ranks, and 
among the chiefs there was a growing feeling of 
discouragement. Charles treated with reserve 
and suspicion the men who were risking proper- 
ty and life for his cause, and consulted only with 
Secretary Murray and his Irish officers. 

On April 8 the Duke of Cumberland began 
his march from Aberdeen. Between the two 



84 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

armies lay the river Spey, always deep and 
rapid, almost impassable when the floods were 
out. A vigilant body of men commanding the 
fords from either bank would have any army at 
its mercy that might try to cross the stream 
under fire. Along the west bank Lord John 
Drummond and his men had built a long, low 
barrack of turf and stone. From this point of 
vantage they had hoped to pour their fire on 
the Hanoverian soldiers in mid-stream, but the 
vigilant Duke of Cumberland had powerful 
cannons in reserve on the opposite bank, and 
Lord John and his soldiers drew off before the 
enemy got across. 

On Monday the 15th this retreating party 
arrived at Inverness, bringing the news that the 
Duke already at Nairne, and would probably next 
day approach to give battle. Prince Charles was 
in the highest spirits at the news. In the streets 
of Inverness the pipers blew the gatherings of 
the various clans, the drums beat, and with 
colors flying the whole army marched out of the 
town and encamped on the plain of Culloden. 

The Prince expected to be attacked next 
morning, Tuesday the 16th, and at six o'clock 
the soldiers were drawn up in order of battle. 
There was an ominous falling away in numbers. 
The Macphersons with Cluny had scattered to 
their homes in distant Badenoch; the Frasers 
were also absent. [Neither of these brave and 
faithful clans was present at the battle the next 
day.] The Keppoch Macdonalds and some 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 85 

other detachments only came in the next 
morning. 

By the most fatal mismanagement no pro- 
vision had been made for feeding the soldiers 
that day, though there was meal and to spare at 
Inverness. A small loaf of the driest and 
coarsest bread was served out to each man. By 
the afternoon, the starving soldiers had 
broken their ranks and were scattering in search 
of food. Lord Elcho had reconnoitred in the 
direction of Nairne, twelve miles off, and re- 
ported that the English army would not move 
that day; they were resting in their camp and 
celebrating their commander's birthday. Charles 
called a council of war at three in the afternoon. 
Lord George Murray gave the daring counsel 
that insead of waiting to be attacked they 
should march through the night to Nairne, and 
while it was still dark surprise and overwhelm 
the sleeping enemy. By dividing the Highland 
forces before reaching Nairne they might at- 
tack the camp in front and rear at the same 
moment; no gun was to be fired which might 
spread the alarm; the Highlanders were to fall 
on with dirk and broadsword. The Prince 
had meant to propose this very plan: he leaped 
up and embraced Lord George. It was a 
dangerous scheme; but with daring, swiftfooted, 
enterprising men it did not seem impossible. 
Yes! but with men faint and dispirited by 
hunger? At the review that morning the -army 
had numbered about 7,000 men, but hardly 



86 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

more than half that number assembled in the 
evening on the field, the rest were still scattered 
in search of food. By eight o'clock it was dark 
enough to start. The attack on the enemy's 
camp was timed for two in the morning, six 
hours were thus allowed for covering the twelve 
miles. The army was to march in three columns, 
the clans first in two divisions, Locheil and 
Lord George at the head with 30 of the Mackin- 
toshes as guides. The Prince himself com- 
manded the third column, the Lowland troops, 
and the French and Irish regiments. The 
utmost secrecy was necessary; the men marched 
in dead silence. Not only did they avoid the 
high roads, but wherever a light showed the 
presence of a house or sheiling they had to make 
a wide circuit round it. The ground they had 
to go over was rough and uneven ; every now and 
then the men splashed into unexpected bogs or 
stumbled over hidden stones. Add to this 
that the night was unusually dark. Instead of 
marching in three clear divisions, the columns 
got mixed in the darkness and mutually kept 
each other back. Soon the light-footed clans- 
man got ahead of the Lowland and French and 
Irish regiments unused to such heavy walking. 
Every few minutes messengers from the rear 
harassed the leaders of the van by begging them 
to march more slowly. It was a cruel task to 
restrain the pace while the precious hours of 
darkness were slipping past. At Kilravock 
House the van halted. This was the point 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 87 

where it was arranged that the army was to 
divide, one part marching straight on the Eng- 
lish camp, trie other crossing the river so as to 
to fall on the enemy from the opposite. The 
rear had fallen far behind, and there was more 
than one wide gap between the various troops. 
The Duke of Perth galloped up from behind 
and told Lord George that it was necessary 
that the van should wait till the others came up ; 
other officers reported that the men were drop- 
ping out of their ranks, and falling asleep by 
the roadside. Watches were now consulted. It 
was already two o'clock and there were still 
four miles to be covered. Some of the officers 
begged that, at all risks, the march might be 
continued. As they stood consulting an aide- 
de-camp rode up from the rear saying that the 
Prince desired to go forward, but was prepared 
to yield to Lord George's judgment. Just 
then through the darkness there came from the 
distance the rolling of drums! All chance of 
surprising the English camp was at an end. 
With a heavy heart Lord George gave the order 
to march back. This affair increased the 
Prince's suspicions of Lord George, which were 
fostered by his Irishry. 

In the growing light the retreat was far more 
rapid than the advance had been. It was 
shortly after five that the army found themselves 
in their old quarters at Culloden. Many fell 
down where they stood, overpowered with sleep ; 
others dispersed in search of food. Charles 



88 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

himself and his chief officers found nothing to 
to eat and drink at Culloden House but a little 
dry bread and whisky. Instead of holding a 
council of war, each man lay down to sleep 
where he could, on table or floor. 

But the sleep they were able to snatch was 
but short. At about eight a patrol coming in 
declared that the Duke of Cumberland was 
already advancing, his main body was within 
four miles, his horse even nearer. 

In the utmost haste the chiefs and officers of 
the Highland army tried to collect their men. 
Many had straggled off as far as Inverness, 
many were still overpowered with sleep; all 
were faint for lack of food. When, the ranks 
were arrayed in order of battle, their numbers 
amounted to 5,000 men. They were-drawn up 
on the open plain; on the right, high turf walls, 
enclosing a narrow field, protected their flank 
(though, as it proved, quite ineffectually), on 
their left lay Culloden House. In spite of 
hunger and fatigue, the old fighting instinct was 
so strong in the clans that they took up their 
positions in the first line with all their old fire 
and enthusiasm, all but the Macdonalds. By 
extraordinary mismanagement the clans Glen- 
garry, Keppoch, and Clanranald — they who 
had so nobly led the right wing at Prestonpans 
and Falkirk — were placed on the left. It was a 
slight that bitterly hurt their pride; it was also, 
to their superstitious minds, a fatal omen. Who 
was the cause of the blunder? This does not 

LOfC. 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 89 

seem to be certainly known. On the right, 
where the Macdonalds should have been, were 
the Athol men, the Camerons, the Stewarts of 
Appin, Macleans, Mackintoshes, and other 
smaller clans, each led by their own chiefs, and 
all commanded by Lord George. At the ex- 
tremities of the two wings the guns were placed, 
four on each side, the only artillery on the 
Prince's side. The second line consisted of the 
French, Irish, and Lowland regiments. The 
Prince and his guards occupied a knoll at the 
rear, from which the whole action of the fight 
was visible. His horse was later covered with 
mud from the cannon balls striking the wet 
moor, and a man was killed behind him. By 
one o'clock the Hanoverian army was drawn up 
within five hundred paces of their enemies. The 
fifteen regiments of foot were placed in three 
lines, so arranged that the gaps in the first line 
were covered by the centres of the regiments in 
the second line. Between each regiment in the 
first line two powerful cannons were placed, and 
the three bodies of horse were drawn up, flank- 
ing either wing. The men were fresh, well fed, 
confident in their general, and eager to retrieve 
the dishonor of Prestonpans and Falkirk. 

A little after one, the day clouded over, and a 
strong northeasterly wind drove sudden showers 
of sleet in the faces of the Highland army. They 
were the first to open fire, but their guns were 
small, and the firing ill-directed; the balls went 
over the heads of the enemy and did little harm. 



90 BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 

Then the great guns on the other side poured 
out the return fire, raking the ranks of the High- 
landers, clearing great gaps, and carrying des- 
truction even into the second line. For half an 
hour the Highlanders stood exposed to this 
fire while comrade after comrade fell at their side. 
It was all they could do to keep their ranks; 
their white, drawn faces and Kindling eyes 
spoke of the hunger for revenge that possessed 
their hearts. Lord George was about to give 
the word to charge, when the Mackintoshes im- 
patiently rushed forward, and the whole of the 
centre and left wing followed them. On they 
dashed blindly, through the smoke and snow and 
rattling bullets. So irresistible was the onset 
that they actually swept through two regiments 
in the first line, thougn almost all the chiefs and 
front rank men had fallen in the charge. The 
regiment in the second rank — SempilPs — 
was drawn up three deep — the first rank kneel- 
ing, the third upright — all with bayonets fixed. 
They recieved the onrushing Highlanders with 
a sharp fire. This brought the clansmen to a 
halt, a few were forced back, more perished, 
flinging themselves against the bayonets. Their 
bodies were afterwards found in heaps three or 
four deep. 

While the right and centre perished in this 
wild charge, the Macdonalds on the left remained 
sullenly in their ranks, rage and angry pride in 
their souls. In vain the Duke of Perth urged 
them to charge. * Your courage/ he cried, 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 91 

'will turn the left into the right, and I will 
henceforth call myself Macdonald,' 

In vain Keppoch, with some of his kin, 
charged alone. "My God! have the children of 
my tribe forsaken me?' he cried, looking back 
to where his clansmen stood stubborn and 
motionless. The stout old heart was broken by 
dishonor. A few minutes later he fell pierced 
by many bullets. 

In the meantime the second line had been 
thrown into confusion. A detachment of the 
Hanoverians — the Campbells, in fact — had 
broken down the turf walls on the Prince's 
right. Through the gaps thus made, there 
rode a body of dragoons, who fell on the rear 
and flanks of the Lowland and French regi- 
ments, and scattered them in flight. Gillie 
MacBane held a breech with the claymore, and 
slew fourteen men before he fell. But the day 
was lost. All that courage, and pride, and 
devotion, and fierce hate could do had been 
done, and in vain. 

Charles had, up to the last, looked for victory. 
He offered to lead on the second line in person; 
but his officers told him that Highlanders would 
never return to such a charge. Two Irish 
officers dragged at his reins; his army was a 
flying mob, and so he left his latest field, unless, 
as was said, he fought at Laffen as a volunteer, 
when the Scots Brigade nearly captured Cum- 
berland. He had been eager to give up Holy- 
rood to the wounded of Prestonpans; his 



92 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 




The end of Culloden 

wounded were left to die, or were stabbed on the 
field. He had refused to punish fanatics who 
tried to murder him; his faithful followers were 



BONNY PRINCE CHARLIE 93 

tortured to extract information which they 
never gave. He lost a throne, but he won 
hearts, and, while poetry lives and romance 
endures, the Prince Charles of the Forty-Five 
has a crown more imperishable than gold. This 
was the ending of that Jacobite cause, for 
which men had fought and died, for which 
women had been content to lose homes and 
husbands and sons. 

It was the end of that gifted race of Stuart 
kings who, for three centuries and more of 
varying fortunes, had worn the crown of Scot- 
land. 

But it was not the end of the romance of the 
Highland clans. Crushed down, scattered, and 
cruelly treated as these were in the years that 
followed Culloden, nothing could break their 
fiery spirit nor kill their native aptitude for 
war. In the service of that very government 
which had dealt so harshly with them, they were 
to play a part in the world's history, wider, 
nobler, and not less romantic than that of 
fiercely faithful adherents to a dying cause. 
The pages of that history have been written in 
imperishable deeds on the hot plains of India, 
in the mountain passes of Afghanistan, in Egypt, 
in the fields of Waterloo and Quatre Bras, and 
among the snows of the Crimea. And there 
may be other pages of this heroic history of the 
Highland regiments that shall be read with 
proud emotion in days that are to be. 



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